Dragon Rage: The First War
by Red Dragonette
Summary: After nearly a millennium of slavery, the dragons have broken free and rebelled violently against their human oppressors. Atlas, having lost her sister to the man-made hybrids, goes to take her nieces to a safer place. Kathia, having lost her parents to dragons, goes to take her vicious revenge on them. Aeolus, having lost everything to the humans, seeks worldwide genocide on them.
1. Prologue

_Today once flourishing towns and cities now lay in ruins. What could cause the ultimate downfall of the human race you may ask? A horde of dragons angered by years of abuse, slavery, and murder at the hands of their oppressors. This all happened in a world much like our own; it is even called Earth, just as our own world. As similar as this world seemed to our own there was one big difference. This difference was that dragons were once kind and wise creatures, but now mean and merciless monsters. (For the most part that is.)_

_The dragons were strong noble creatures; they had the ability to breathe fire and had armor as hard as rocks in the form of scales covering their hides. Back then, they were few in numbers and their existence was unheard of by the humans. Long ago, mysterious things have been happening in the human communities. Farms had been raided of livestock, some of which were eaten on the ground; precious jewelry was stolen; mines were raided of its gems and rich metallic ores; people went missing to never be seen again; and earthquakes, forest fires, city fires, and sudden weather changes were becoming more common. No one had any idea how these things occurred so fast and hidden from the eye. That is until investigators set up video cameras to watch the perpetrators to see who were behind the disappearance and robbery, while the scientists were trying to solve the natural disasters. _

_The mystery was solved when the camera caught the acts of strange winged beasts committing all these problems. They ate the people and animals they caught, stole riches to add to their horde, and used their super powers to fight each other, resulting in devastating disasters. Now with the mystery solved, the humans went on to hunt these dragons to put an end to their problems and prevent any more loss of human lives. The soldiers gunned down a horde of these beasts, while taking away the eggs and hatchlings to study at the lab to see what the various breeds were like. _

_The news soon reached the other dragons and so they teamed up together to take down the humans and rescue the hatchlings. They started attacking wildly, taking down any human that got in their way and broke down buildings to see if they housed the kidnapped. This initiated a war as the human army came in and retaliated against these monsters. Even though the dragons were sapient, because the two species haven't known each other for long plus the fact that they haven't spoken the same language at that time, they viewed the other as less than themselves. The humans saw the dragons as dangerous monsters, while the dragons saw the humans as wild animals on equivalence of lions, deers, and other animals. The dragons fought back valiantly, but humans won not by just force, but by sheer numbers as well._

_The humans, who had seen these creatures' out-of-worldly powers and what they can do, had the idea to use them for the betterment of mankind. So they instantly started hunting down the dragons to capture and turn into beasts of burden. But the dragons were not so quick to listen to their masters and instead, tried to break free. So the humans resorted to brutal ways to get these winged dinosaurs to listen. At first many considered it unethical; but then it became a norm later. Along with enslaving the ones they catch as pets and slaves, the humans also used the dragons they killed for their scales to turn into leather fashion accessories. _

_For a very long time after the downfall of the free dragons the dragons were used as slaves for moving heavy objects, encouraged to work by sharp metal pokers, with a very high voltage of electricity running through it. They are also kept as pets by rich families kept in heavy duty reinforced electrified cages. The dragons had no hope for an easy escape. The dragons where often starved or fed rancid, stale food in small amounts to keep them weak._

_As the dragons suffered they kept in contact through telepathic communication. The humans had no idea they were capable of communicating, so they couldn't stop them. As the years went by the dragons were slowly biding their time waiting for their powers to return and the perfect moment to strike. Together they were devising a flawless spell to aid their escape and seek their revenge on the humans._

_Nearly one-thousand years after the downfall of the free dragons, they had perfected the spell. At that very moment, the humans were struggling to rebuild their towns; several natural disasters had weakened the humans. They were low on natural resources and other important items. The dragons took this opportunity to strike; they released their spell and rendered all human made technology useless. Electrical objects stopped working and locking mechanisms fell to pieces. The once strong and sturdy bars on the dragon cages became weak and rusted. The dragons broke free and attacked the humans, starting the war between humans and dragons._

_The humans started to revert back to their old technology such as bow & arrows and swords. Also unbelievably the government has abandoned them too, so no one should expect any help from the military. A few select humans who only showed the dragons kindness and tried to help them, despite the scorn and ridicule they would get from society, are greatly known by most dragons. News travels fast when you can speak telepathically to one another. These sympathizers, whose hope for equality has managed to survive through the centuries despite the majority's strong support of slavery, stood a better chance of survival and even a chance of being protected by some dragons. Another thing different between this world and our own world is that it is much bigger and has much more land covered by forest. As the dragons began their attack, the humans abandoned their towns and cities, to go hide in the forest. There they built camps, trying to build an army to defeat these 'horrible monsters'._

* * *

**Author's Note**  
This is a fanfic based on an RP, I played in at Dragon Cave's forums. It's also the first story of my Dragon Rage series. This story will mostly be told from the perspective of my characters such as Atlas, Aeolus, and Kathia. And yes, I copied the intro from the RP. This is so that newcomers can know what this fanfic was all about in case the RP dies. Also along with the canon breeds of dragons, there will also be dragon breeds from the completed requests board of the forums as well as breeds I made up such as Aeolus's disaster breed. I tell you which ones are mine and which are not.

If you want to find this RP, then go to Dragon Cave Forum and go to the Dragon Cave Role Plays board. Then find a thread called "Great War: Dragons vs Humans."

This story's also up on DeviantArt under the username, SilverBeastLaguz.

Great War Dragons vs Humans (c) Picknick10  
Story written by me  
Dragon Cave (c) TJ09 (a.k.a. T.J. Lipscomb)


	2. Freedom!

**Chapter 1: Freedom!**

The audience roared with cheers and shouts as they watched the two dragons in the coliseum tear at each other. Atlas, a magi dragoness whose orange scales tinted with a little red, was up against a guardian dragon in the quarter finals of the tournament. She used to be a working slave from the day she and her sister were orphaned & kidnapped as hatchlings and sold into slavery; but ever since her current master's grandfather bought her, she has been trained into a fighting dragon and made to kill other dragons in tournaments for the sake of getting lots of money for her three generations of masters and for the humans' cruel sadistic entertainment. Atlas hated having to kill others of her race like this, but she was left with no choice as her slaver threatened to slay her mint friend, Snively, and then her if she refused to fight. And even without a hostage, the electronic collar around her neck prevented Atlas from using her teleportation magic to escape. It doesn't help that it was also extremely durable to any kind of attacks from dragons, so no counting on herself or anyone to break it off.

Atlas cast a few fireballs at the guardian dragon, who head up the big shield tip of his tail to block all the projectiles. Then she rained down ice needles on her foe, who then used his metallic wings to shield himself from the cold stings of her spell. This move however, was just a trick for Atlas to leap over him and then spin half-way in mid-air so that she can fall on him with her sharp teeth biting down on the back of his neck. The guardian roared in pain and tried to shake and throw off the assailant like a bull in a rodeo show. Atlas fought to keep herself holding onto him as she cast a fire aura spell on herself to further harm the opponent with hot fiery burns. The guardian went for plan B by rearing up and then slamming himself down backwards to body slam the magi. Air was blown out of the dragoness and her backside was throbbing with pain. Plan B had worked as the guardian was released from his foe's clutches. He got up and raised his shield tail to slam down on Atlas's head. The dragoness quickly saw the incoming attack and shielded herself by using her ice magic to create an icy ledge over her. Then she cast ice needles into his face, which stung the guardian's eyes and made them turn painfully cold. He roared and stumbled back blindly like an injured animal. Atlas took the chance to finish him off by going over to him and biting him down on his throat. Fangs pierced the jugular and the metallic taste of blood gushed on her tongue. For the finishing move, she proceeded to shake and tear at his throat until the flesh was torn, leaving a bloody hole on his neck. With the guardian dragon dead, Atlas won the quarterfinal and the crowd cheered in excitement for a good show.

The coliseum guards entered the arena to put a leash on Atlas before escorting her back to her men locked her inside and turned the power on to electrify the watched them open the cages of the other fighting dragons to bring into the next match as she thought with a vengeance, _'Enjoy the show while you can, humans. Because once the Spell is released tonight, my next opponents will be all of you!'_ She couldn't wait to get out and destroy all who have made her suffer over the years.

* * *

The suburban section of the city had been ravaged by a hurricane yesterday and many homes had been damaged during the storm. The most able-bodied slave dragons were being made to clean up the debris and help repair the houses. It was quite a treacherous work for them, given their malnourished state that kept them from rising up against their masters, the Rittevon Inc and those in the neighborhood who let the company borrow their dragons. Even the harsh sunlight did nothing to help ease their suffering. Kathia, daughter of the company president, was there on her internship to oversee the slaves and workmen's activity, making sure none of them went out of place or lazed on the job. One black dragon was very exhausted and felt his legs gave way for him to collapse on the ground. The redhead flogged him with her thorny whip and yelled, **"****Hey you! Don't you dare lie down like a bum. I want to see you work like everyone else. Now get to it!"** The dragon groaned tiredly and forced himself back up to carry away the steel beams. Another overseer nearby whipped him to get the beast going faster, making the slave slip before catching himself. Kathia and the man flogged him a few more times before she saw another exhausted dragon who collapsed. She whipped that one too and scolded him back into moving the debris out of the way.

Now feeling hot and thirsty, the teen went over to the stand to get herself a cold water bottle from the cooler. She went to the deck chair and sat beneath the shade as she drank down a few gulps, adding insult to injury at any slave who saw her, by making them jealous for what she has. Kathia saw a young earth dragoness glancing at her owner, a dark-haired brunette girl who was perched on a bit of tumbled down wall. Snorting in an amused way, the yellow dragoness turned back to her work. She was about to move a small area of debris with her earth-bending magic before she got whipped on her hindquarters by one of the overseers. The brunette let out an angry gasp at seeing her pet get hurt. Kathia smiled in amusement at the girl's worry as she thought, _'She must be another one of those dragon sympathizers. What a bunch of hippies!'_ The Rittevon girl never had a liking for those who fought for the humane rights and freedom of dragons, which were rare in this world. To her, they were just a bunch of ignorant moron who had no idea how much progress that slavery has brought for mankind.

Without dragons and their magic, the humans would have no electricity that came without the need for fossil fuels; no extremely durable leather items that came from the toughest of dragon scales; no magic from the white dragons and other healer types to completely heal severe injuries and cure mental illnesses and all deadly diseases like AIDs, HIVs, and Malaria; no super efficiency to blue-collar works; no waters 100% clean; no quickest and effective ways like mind-reading magic to spot and arrest the most elusive criminals; and no other miracles made from the working and hunting of dragons. Oh what would life without dragons?

Time went on by for hours, as the slaves and workmen cleared up the damage and made repairs to the damaged houses. The humans took an hour of lunch break, during which they fed the dragons with the worst quality food and little water. The work went on until 9 'o clock at night when the workers and slaves went home for the night. By now, the rebuilt buildings were now only in need of closing up holes and the streets became debris-free again, but there was still work to finish up tomorrow as some of the houses were still in need of repairs. Kathia rode in a black limousine driven by her butler, while her slaves were carried in trucks back to her mansion. The other slaves were to be taken to the work shelter at the company building. The black dragon, she whipped earlier, was hesitant to enter his prison. He grunted and leapt forward when one of the handlers jabbed firmly his right thigh with one of the metal rods. Through these rods ran high voltages of electrify that were enough to get the slave into his cage. He collapsed on the filthy floor long enough for the gates to be brunette girl wanted her pet dragoness back, but the slavers had demanded that they keep her pet until the reconstruction was complete. So the owner gave up without a fight.

The Rittevon girl reached home, where the slaves were taken to the backyard shelter into their electric cages and Kathia went to the dining room to eat dinner with her family. **"So how was your day, Kathia? Are the reparations going well?"** asked her mother.

**"Yep! We cleaned up the mess and fixed a few houses. Although, we've ran out of resources to do more repairs. I guess we'll have to order the supplies or get our slaves to mine them,"** replied Kathia.

* * *

Meanwhile, the dragon-fighting tournament has reached the finals. Atlas, the recurring champion of annual tournaments, was up next against a bulky and large challenger. It looks like she was going to be made champion again if the magi killed her last opponent; something she didn't want to happen before the spell. _'Come on, Aeolus. Hurry up and give us the signal!'_ she thought desperately. She wondered when the mastermind behind the big plan was going to let all the world's dragons cast the spell. The guards opened up the cage and took her by the ropes to the arena. There, she came face to face with a bleeding moon dragon. The red patches on his body were really dark; a warning sign that meant the dragon was in his aggressive state in which he'll fight with all his might and fury. Plus there was the fact that bleeding moons have power poison in their tails. Atlas would have to be very careful in this fight if she wanted to survive again to reunite with her escaped family; her sister Flarina, her brother-in-law John, and her nieces, Danielle and Kylie. The spectator began the final match and the two dragons engaged each other in combat. The bleeding moon scratched the magi with his sharp black claws and drew blood. Then he followed with his tail barb lunging towards her, but luckily Atlas moved her head out of the way before she could get struck. The magi burned her opponent with her fire stream spell coursing around his body. The audience yelled cheers at the sight of the burning dragon. Atlas flew up and used her telepathy to ask her sister, _'Flarina, how close are you to the city?'_

_'I think we're almost there. John and I can see it on the horizon. It'll take more minutes until we get to you,'_ replied Flarina.

_'Good. I want you guys to be the first thing I see after I leave this goddamn city. I can't wait to see my nieces you told me about,'_ said Atlas.

_'And they can't wait to see their Aunt Atlas as well,'_ said Flarina.

The bleeding moon dragon, after having put out the flames with his drop and roll, flew up after Atlas. The magi looked back at him and said, _'We'll have to talk later. Right now, I need to take care of one last dragon before he kills me.'_

_'The tournament's not over yet? Oh boy... Well please come out in one piece, sister,'_ Flarina told her.

_'Don't worry, I will,'_ the magi promised before they cut off telepathy. Atlas cast her wind blades spell at the bleeding moon, who dodged each sharp light green blades before he rammed into her with his curvy red horns. The tackle knocked the breath out of the magi and pushed her back a few feet in the air. Then he clamped his jaws onto her neck and bite down on her. Atlas clenched her teeth and shut her eyes in pain before she enveloped her body with the Flame Aura spell to burn the holding foe. The bleeding moon let go after his mouth had received the fiery agony of pain and let out a loud shriek. Atlas tackled her flaming body into him to deal more damage to him. She grabbed onto him and took him down to the ground where she slammed him down on the ground.

The audience pumped their fists in the air and shouted, **"Kill him! Kill him! Kill him!"** That was what the magi was going to do now.

But as she opened her jaws for the killing bite, she heard Aeolus's voice in her head, _'Everyone, the time has come for our freedom! All dragons cast the Spell now!'_

Atlas closed her mouth into a smile and thought, _'Perfect timing! I was afraid I was going to have to kill this guy before the big show.'_

The bleeding moon dragon told her, **"You heard him, it's time we get our revenge on these humans."**

**"I know, no need to remind me,"** the magi replied. Then the two opponents connected their thoughts with the worldwide telepathy to empower the Spell-casters. A white aura surrounded Atlas's body and she cast the Spell into the air. Dragon-oppressing electronics around the world began to shut down permanently and a giant roar outside the coliseum sounded through the city.

The earthquake shook the place and the humans started to panic as they shouted things like **"Earthquake!" "What's going on?!" "What's happening?!"**

The force-field keeping the dragons inside the arena disappeared and enabled the former opponents to began their rebellion against the bloodshed-loving crowd. The bleeding moon flew up towards the northern spectator seats, where slammed his tail down on the humans to crush them and ate a teenage boy who got caught in his snapping jaws. Atlas cast her fire beam spell at the press box and destroyed the reporters inside. Then she impaled her mean owners with her ice spears; she had always wanted to kill them after all the torment and vigorous pressure they put her through. The guards came out to punish the winged beasts with their weapons, consisting of guns and shock-sticks. Two of them tried to shoot the bleeding moon dragon, but the bullets refused to come out of their metal homes. The other guards tried to get their sticks to start electrifying, but it was futile, no matter what. Atlas whipped her head around to see the guards with her glaring eyes and burned them with her fire beam. A teenage boy in a hoodie dropped down into the arena. The magi dragoness walked over to him and bared her teeth in an angry growl at him.

The boy shot up and took a step back as Atlas advanced towards him, but when he spoke his voice betrayed no fear. His voice was soft and calming, as if he was talking to an injured animal. **"You don't want to hurt me. You're mind is just clouded by your anger. Take your leave while you still have your chance."** With that said, the boy raised his hands and waited for her response as his fingers twitched slightly.

Atlas snorted; she was kind of impressed with the boy showing no ounce of fear or hostility in him, but the feeling was hidden beneath her scowling mask. **"And why should I not hurt you?"** she challenged. Not that she planned to attack him anyway as she was above killing those who don't fight back. Sure she destroyed the announcers in the press box, but that was to show a frightening example to the humans watching the show on TV that their reign was neigh and that dragons everywhere were going to rebel against them.

**"Because I have tons of spells that I can use to fight back with. I don't want to have to hurt you with them, that's why I'm telling to leave peacefully,"** answered the boy.

A human that can use magic? He had to be bluffing, because there was no human being, that she know of, that can use magic. But Atlas decided not to press on this issue as she felt it was a waste of her time. **"Hmph, fine! I suppose I can spare you; besides, I got better things to do. Though I won't promise the other guy I fought won't do the same,"** the magi said hinting about the bleeding moon dragon. Now that her magic-suppressing collar was no longer functioning, Atlas had a whole access to her arsenal of spells to use anytime and anywhere without her deceased masters telling her when to use them. She closed her eyes and pictured the place to warp to; the dragon shed where all her fellow slaves were being kept. She had to help them get out of there. Atlas used her teleport spell and warp over there immediately. She disappeared from the coliseum in a flash that exhausted purple clouds.

* * *

The Rittevon's slaves were breaking out of their cages and burning down the guards and watchmen. The family heard the dying screams and ran out of the house to check out what's happening at the shed. **"What's going on there?"** asked Mr. Rittevon as he went to open the door. To his horror, he saw the rebellious slaves killing off his hired soldiers. Angered by this, Mr. Rittevon took out his hand gun and went inside to scold his slaves. **"Hey! What do you blasted scalies think you're doing?! You think you can just start a riot and achieve freedom? I don't think so! I'm going to shoot down one of you to teach you a lesson and make you all learn your places!"** When he squeezed the trigger, nothing came out. **"Eh?"** breathed the company president. No matter how many times he tried to shoot, the bullets would never leave the handgun. **"What's going on here?"** asked Mr. Rittevon. Then a black dragon took the slaver up in his jaws and started eating him.

Mrs. Rittevon and her daughter gasped astoundingly in horror. **"Daddy!"** Kathia shouted.

Her mother took her away as she said to the slaves, **"You monsters! I'll call the dragon control to kill you all for this!"** Then they both ran back to the mansion. Mrs. Rittevon took up the phone and called the dragon control agency, **"Hello? I have a bunch of rioting dragons who have just killed off my servants and ate my husband. I need you men to-"** A scream was heard on the other line as a dragoness's roar sounded on the phone. **"Hello? Is everything all right?"** There was no response. Three dragons burst through the rear walls of the house to make their attack on the Rittevons and their human servants. The people screamed and ran as the beasts blew fires around the room and chased their bipedal prey to eat them. Mrs. Rittevon grabbed her daughter's hand and cried, **"Let's get out of here, Kathia!"** The mother, daughter, and their butler ran outside to the limousine and got in quickly before they could get hurt. **"Drive! Go! Go! Go!"** the mother told the driver. The butler pushed his foot down hard on the gas pedal and sped away.

Kathia observed the scenery through the windows and found out that the dragon rebellion wasn't just happening at her home; there was chaos around the streets and at many other homes where dragons were killing and wrecking havoc. Kathia got frightened as she felt like an apocalypse was happening right now before her very eyes. **"What the heck is going on?!"** she yelled.

**"I don't know, Kathia. But I do hope we can make it out of this place in one piece before-"** her mother said before a piece of another mansion was thrown down into the limo's path. The three humans screamed out loud before the butler pushed down on the brakes, making the vehicle come to an abrupt halt.

**"Oh great, we're stuck. Now what?!"** the paranoid driver asked. Suddenly, a big dragon flew down to the limo and tore off the roof. He picked up the butler and ate the upper part of his body. The women screamed when they saw the horrific fate of the butler.

**"Let's get out, Kathia!"** Mrs. Rittevon cried. The daughter obeyed without any thoughts whatsoever and followed her mother out of into the streets. The Rittevon women ran as hard as they can to make their escape out of the city. Everywhere they went had the same thing happening; it was like the dragons had scaled a widespread riot throughout the whole city and quite possibly the whole world. How did she know this? Because they passed a TV store where there was a news on TV at the display window that spoke about the rampaging dragons in different parts of Rudvich and the rest of the world. **"How the hell did this happened? We had technology, we had weapons, and we had everything we needed to keep those blasted scalies in their place!"** Kathia yelled hysterically.

**"I don't know, Kathia! I guess it was because the world was running out of resource, that we didn't have enough to keep our slaves from going against us! Now be quiet and run!"** Mrs. Rittevon cried. They kept on going, trying to find a place where there was no heavy traffic, so that they can hitch a ride in a vehicle and get out of this dying city quickly.

The Rittevons were almost there to the outskirts of the city. **"We're almost there, mom! We're almost there! We're going to make it!"** Kathia cried out, excited when she saw the forest in the horizon. Their hype was cut short when a big fireball hit Mrs. Rittevon from behind and killed her. The impact threw her down on the ground with a totally bad case of burns on all of the rear side of her body. **"MOM!"** Kathia shouted in shock.

A man ran up to her side and took her away. **"Come on, we can't stay here. We have to go!"** Without hesitation, Kathia ran with him and the other living people out into the woods.

* * *

The teleport spell had taken Atlas over to the slave prison place, where she had seen her fellow dragons and broken free from their cages and killing the slavers. _'Looks like the Spell had done a huge miracle for us like I thought,'_ she thought. With everyone fighting the helpless handlers, this left Atlas to one task she had came to do: find her friend, Snively, who had been locked up in a secret place from the rest of the dragons and used as a hostage to get the magi to fight hard in the tournaments. _'Snively, I'm here. Where are you? Send me an image of where you are,'_ she asked telepathically.

A telepathic image of a dark, dusty, and gloomy room came into the magi's mind. _'I'm right here. Now get me out of here; I'm tired of living in this cold and musty place,'_ said Snively.

_'I'm coming, just wait for me,'_ Atlas replied. Then she went off to go find the secret room and walked by her fellow slaves, big black dragon named Spuma and a greenish-yellow dragoness named Zee. Atlas ran past the other dragons and broke through the wall where she stepped into the hallway. The maids and butlers all ran away screaming at the top of their lungs. The magi ran after one of them for the purpose of catching and interrogating them about her friend's whereabouts. She rose an earthly wall out of the ground to block and trap the servants. One of the maids fainted from shock from the fact that her doom was now inevitable. Atlas came up to the humans, growling and glaring at them. **"Alright humans, talk! Where did your Tristan put my friend, Snively? You know, that winged mint dragon you dirtbags took to keep me fighting in those death matches you love so much,"** she asked harshly. Tristan was the name of her current owner.

One of the butlers, despite being scared out of his wits, took what little courage he had to answer, **"H-h-he's locked up... in the m-m-master's chamber... Behind th-that secret d-d-door."**

The dragoness looked at the butler and said, **"Oh, so you know where he is, huh? Very well, you better take me to him right away or I'll have you and your buddies roasted thoroughly. You got that?"** She gave a warning growl to him.

**"Y-y-yes sir, uh, I m-mean ma'am, uh.. uh..."** the butler was at loss for words.

**"Let's just go!"** Atlas yelled. She didn't have time to listen to this coward stutter; she wanted to see if Snively was all right before she could rejoin her family. The butler took the dragoness to Master Tristan's chamber, where she busted down the wall, since the door was too small for her.

The butler went to a seemingly normal wall and pushed against it, where it was revealed to be a hidden rotating door. **"Y-you can find him right this way, dra.. uh I m-mean ma'am,"** he answered.

**"Good, I'm going in! Now get the hell out of here, before I kill you,"** Atlas threatened. With that, the butler ran out the room as his life literally depended on it. The magi broke down the hidden door and crawled down the dark tunnel. **"Snively, are you there? Answer me!"**

"I can hear you, Atlas. Boy, I'm glad that I'm finally going to get out of this dump. You have no idea how lonely I am without others around,"

the mint called back.

**"Hang on, kid. I'm coming!"** Atlas reached the end of the tunnel and broke the cage using her earth magic. The mint dragon took his time to smile at his regained freedom and stretch his limbs. **"Alright Snively, let's get out of here!"** They went back to the slave room, where Atlas broke down the wall to the outdoors. As dragons flew out, the magi roared, **"Freedom, everybody! Freedom!"** She and Snively watched their fellow slaves leave either to unleash their vengeance on the humans or make their new homes in the woods. The magi looked down at her friend and asked, **"So now that we're all out of our cages for good, what will you do now, Snively? Kill the humans or what?"**

"Nah, I'm just going to head on to the woods. I'm a lover not a fighter,"

the mint answered.

**"Very well then. You take care, alright? Let me know how things are going every now and then."**

"Alright, I will."

Then the winged mint flew away to parts unknown.

Now that Atlas's task was done, the only thing left to do was rejoin her family and go home back to Solomos, where they belong. The magi dragoness made a telepathic link to her sister and said, _'Flarina, I got Snively and the others out. I'm on my way to meet you all out in the woods right away.'_

_'Okay, we'll be waiting,'_ Flarina replied. Atlas would have teleported over to them right away, but her teleportation spell only worked once per hour. That means the magi would have to take the long away around. Atlas spread her wings and took out into the air to fly through the city.

* * *

**Author's Note**

I added a bit more to the dialogue between Atlas and Nick, because I felt like Atlas wouldn't walk away quietly without asking why she shouldn't hurt someone from an enemy race.

Atlas Firestar, Aeolus, Kathia, Snively, Flarina, Danielle, and Kylie (c) me  
Nick (c) Picknick10  
Spuma (c) Rampaging_Wyvern  
Zee and Katerina (c) Zanzibar79


	3. The Winds' Revenge

**Chapter 2: The Winds' Revenge**

Aristocratic dragons were having a spring family reunion in the forest. Extended family members gathered here to share their stories and tales with one other, having friendly competitive sports, and letting their hatchlings play with one another. An emerald green baby dragon with a dark yellow underbelly was playing tag with three other hatchlings, including his own sister. The green disaster hatchling tagged the royal blue one and passed the "It" status on to him before he and another hatchling ran away from their pursuer. They passed by four male dragons who were having a conversation. The ash-gray dragon broodily groaned,**"This century just keeps getting better and better... Last week, a bunch of humans came in with helicopters and guns and shot down Freddy and his friends. Then those savages threw the wounded in cages and tied the dead to the back of their trucks and took them away into the city. I tell you, folks. Days are getting grimmer and grimmer when everybody would either get shot dead or put onto the market as a fresh slave ready to be broken dry. I wouldn't be surprised if the next century turns out the same way as this one did."**

**"Me neither. I bet it's only a matter of time before we're all next,"** said the pessimist dark orange dragon. The moonstone and summer dragons both nodded their heads in agreement. The disaster hatchling overhead what the adults were saying and instantly became worried. Would the humans come and take him away eventually? Or would they probably kill him on the spot? He didn't want to be stolen away from his family and be a slave for the rest of his life or wind up dead. The thoughts about these two treacherous fates were scary enough to make his belly churn.

While pondering in his thoughts, the disaster hatchling was taken by surprise when the blue hatchling ran faster and pounced him down to the ground. **"Gotcha! Now you're It!"** the blue said, laughing before he ran off.

But the green hatchling didn't bother to go after him; instead he asked this question, **"Hey Bam, do you think the humans will ever kidnap us?"**

Bam stopped running and turned around to look back at his playmate. **"Huh? Why would you ask that?"** he asked, wondering.

**"Well it's because I heard the grown-ups saying that the humans were going to get us someday. So thought that maybe someday we all would be next eventually,"** replied the disaster hatchling.

Bam laughed at the nonsense he was hearing and said confidently, **"Hah, me next? No way, pal! There's no way the humans would get to me as long as daddy's around. He's a really strong dragon and he can kick those humans' butts easily! And when I grow up, I'm going to be as big and strong like my daddy."**

**"Yeah, but what if the humans do get you? Then what?"** asked the green, not sure if Bam and his father's strength would protect them from the strange-looking primates.

Three other hatchlings came up to them when the game had taken a break. The female green hatchling asked, **"Brother, what's wrong? Why aren't you chasing Bam?"**

The brother would have answered the question had Bam not beaten him to it first, **"Oh he just heard the worrywart grown-ups say that the humans are going to get us all and now he thinks it's going to happen someday."**

The sister smiled gently and went over to her brother and assured, **"Brother, relax. Everything is going to be alright."**

The orange hatchling approached too and said, **"Yeah Aeolus, let's just keep playing the game and worry about that stuff later."**

Aeolus, now comforted, let go of his fears and said, **"Yeah, I guess you're right. Let's get back to playing, shall we?"** Then he had a mischievous smirk on his face and shoved his paw into his sister. **"By the way, you're It now!"** he teased.

**"Hey, get back here!"** the girl hatchling said in her playfully annoyed tone. She gave chase to the fleeing hatchlings as they all laughed and have a good time.

* * *

About 30 minutes later, all the dragons gathered together for a meeting and toast to their reunion. A dark green dragon, who was the host of this party, landed on top of the monolith and said to his family, **"Everyone, it has been an honor to have you all here for this family reunion. It makes me so happy to see how many of us are here to this day after all the hardships and losses we've suffered in our long lives and in this dark age. And even though our enslaved and dead kin are no longer with us, I can feel their presence among us in spirit."** Some of the dragons lowered their heads in grief while a few others shed tears for their lost loved ones. The host understood their sorrow and felt sympathy for them as he said,**"Yes, yes, I know these tragedies must pain you so. But never fear, my fellow brothers and sisters, maybe some day there will come a new era when dragons will no longer be exploited by mankind and we can all get on back with our peaceful lives without fear of losing our lives, freedoms, and loved ones at the hands of these fiends. We'll even be reunited with our friends and family. Now I know this sounds like I'm giving you all false promises here, but how many times in history did we as a species survive death and injustice? For every despair, there is always hope for us; a miracle waiting to happen. And I assure you that miracle will come one way or another, no matter how many years or centuries it takes to get there. So let us keep hoping for that day and for the humans to get the punishment they deserve. For now, I give a toast to all of us here in these woods and all around the world and the life beyond."**

All the dragons roared out in applause and cheers. Even little Aeolus was giving out his cute high-pitched roar. His father's speech had put down half of his worries about his future fate. _'Well I guess even if I do get captured and starved, I'll be able to get out of slavery free and alive,'_ the hatchling thought. Hope would be there to save him in the end. The celebration soon was put to an end when a loud gunshot was heard. Aeolus's father had taken a bullet to the heart as he grunted out in pain and fell over dead. The astonished dragons gasped at the murder that had taken place right in front of them. Aeolus and his mother & sister had taken the hardest hit as they were all struck with grief. **"Father!"** the son cried.

Within the next second, human soldiers came in with guns blazing at the crowd; wounding and killing some of them in the process. Panicking screams and roars filled the air as parents gathered their hatchlings and fled, while those, who can afford to fight, bought time for them by fending off the humans with fiery breaths, plant-controlling magic, and other magical powers to fight against bullets, missiles, and grenades. Despite the dragon's incredible powers; the humans came prepared with anti-dragon technology to subdue their dinosaurian prey. The humans activated their force fields to shield themselves against the offense and used sleeping gas to knock out the dragons. The helicopters shot out electric nets to catch and paralyze the captives. Not even Bam's father, who was the strongest as the hatchling claimed to be, was tough enough to avoid succumbing to the gas and getting shot dead. Bam, was in disbelief and shock, and would have been to the fullest extent, if he wasn't feeling very tired at the moment. **"Daddy, no..."** were his last words before his unconsciousness.

Aeolus's mother tried to escape with her two hatchlings carried in her forelegs like arms. She surrounded herself with magical winds to prevent the sleeping gas from going into her lungs, but that didn't stop the weapons' ammo from being fired upon them. One bullet flew into the skull of Aeolus's sister and blood started gushing out of her head from where she got killed. Both the brother and the mother were horrified to see another member of their family had been taken. **"No!"** Aeolus shouted.

**"Selica!"** the mother cried out in grief over the death of her precious baby. Soon afterwards, a rocket launcher shot out a missile that flew into the mother's back and bombarded her badly with a horribly burning explosion. The light gray dragoness roared out loudly in agony as she crashed down onto the ground, dropping both of her hatchlings in the process. Aeolus rolled on the ground and hurt himself before he stopped and lifted his head up to see the gruesome burns on his mother's back and wings. She was moaning in pain as she struggled against the will to lay down and keep herself from hurting any further. Her son, the only one she had left, needed her and she had to keep him safe from the humans.

The dragoness managed to raise her head, but she didn't get to stand on her legs next, because the gunmen came at her with shock sticks to jab and stun her with electricity. Aeolus got all frantic and worried watching the two-legged, mask-wearing monsters attack his parent. **"Mother!"** he shouted.

Then a hand grabbed him by scruff as a gruff voice sounded from behind, **"Come here, you!"** The hatchling was lifted up off the ground and thrown into a small cage. The man carried the cage over to one of the trucks where the other caged hatchlings were put. The sleep gas started to take its toll on Aeolus as his vision became dark and the last thing he saw was his mother getting dragged by the soldiers.

* * *

Since that tragic day, Aeolus Gallion had spent all his 448 years doing grueling work for all the slavers he had in his life. As of now, the green dragon and other dragons with electric abilities were in the power plant zapping the generator's lightning rods to provide energy to the entire city. It was exhausting to everyone's mouths, which the electric breaths came from, and bodies, which the magic originate. Aeolus could feel himself wanting to stopped and take a much-needed break for his mouth and lungs, but then that would earn him the sharp stings of the whips and painful shocks of the tasers. The humans wanted their slaves working constantly for like 24 hours a day to keep the town running. An overseer walked by the line of slaves, keeping a sharp eye for anyone who fails to do their jobs. The man cracked his whip on the hard floor and yelled, **"Keep zapping, you scaly scums! I want to see you all work!"**

His words weren't that much helpful as everyone knew what would happen to them should they fail to do their jobs. Aeolus's red eyes shifted to the side to look at the man with contempt for him and his species. How he wanted to break free and destroy all humans and make them pay for that he had suffered over the centuries, including getting revenge for the death of his mother who died after being worked to death. He already had a such a plan that would achieve this desire and liberate all the dragons around the world. That plan was the Spell, which he and another older and wiser dragon by the name of Arcaon worked on. Arcaon was a dragon that Aeolus heard about from a fellow slave who got transported from Rudvich; the disaster dragon came into contact with Arcaon via telepathy and discussed how they were going save all of dragonkind. Thus, they came up with the solution of disabling all human weaponry and dragon-suppressing tech on the whole planet. In order for the Spell to work, nearly all the dragons around the world must combine their magic energy into the global telepathy to power up the spellcasters who would then unleash the Spell's global effect. Plus with the several natural disasters and the natural resources used to repair cities such as metal ores and oil running low, the humans will be too weak to fend for themselves against the dragons' wrath as their number of weapons were getting fewer every day. Tonight was going to be great!

* * *

After the slaves were sent back to their cages with two dragons dead from starvation and over-exhaustion, the dragons waited until most of the humans left the room and only the few guards remained. Aeolus laid down in his cage with tail curled around his body and wings down as he waited for his fellow mastermind to give him the signal. The other slaves were too anticipating the coming the of the Spell as hope was shining in their eyes. The disaster dragon heard Arcaon's telepathic message, _'Now's the time Aeolus. Tell the other dragons to release the Spell now.' _

Grateful that the time had finally come, Aeolus formed a telepathic bond with the whole world and said, _'Everyone, the time has come for our freedom! All dragons cast the Spell now!' _So the dragons worked together and unleashed the Spell. When the electricity coursing through the barbed wires curled around the bars of his cage shut down, Aeolus felt content to see that his brilliant plan had worked like a charm. The Spell did the same thing to the cages of his fellow slave dragons. The green dragon of earth and wind ripped the wires off his cage door while resisting the pain the thorns gave to his paw. **"My brothers, the time for liberty has come and the genocide and slavery we've suffered at the hands of the humans has finally ended. No longer will we work ourselves to death while the humans flog us. No longer will we eat rotten food, while the humans fill themselves fat. No longer will our lives be of misery and pain, while the humans live in luxury and greed. No longer will our hatchlings be torn away from their families and be robbed of their childhoods. No longer will our eggs be used as food for the humans. And no longer will any more of our wild brethren be slain or captured to live what we went through. Today is the day, we dragons take back our freedom and revolt against these wretched hairless apes! Everyone, RISE!"** Around the room, dragons roared and broke out of their cages.

The guards saw what was happening and grabbed their guns and metal pokers to attack. Their weapons failed to do their job and the men were quickly electrocuted and eaten by the rebels. One guard scared for his life at the chaos going on, frantically took out his walkie-talkie and spoke into it, **"Alert! Alert! We got a code red down here at Section 22. Those dragons are breaking out of their cages and killing our men. I need backup ASAP!"** Then he was quickly zapped by Aeolus's lightning breath. The man's body flashed a few short times with his skeleton showing every second before he collapsed down and burnt.

**"Thanks for giving us more victims to kill, fool! They'll thank you in the afterlife,"** the disaster dragon said coldly and glad that he was going to have more of these damn apes to murder.

The reinforcements soon came in, armed and ready to quell the rebellion. **"Alright you lizards, prepare to die!"** one of the men said. The slaves, knowing that the guards can't do a thing anymore, quickly zapped them to death before the humans would realized that their guns were useless after pulling the trigger once. Then the slaves left the cage room and went to kill the rest of their human masters in the building before they all left the place of their servitude. Aeolus destroyed the powerplant with his earthquake power before he and the others went out into the city to join up with the other free dragons to attack the humans. The disaster breathed out lightning at a crowd of humans, killing most of them while paralyzing the survivors, who would most likely get finished off by the other dragons. Then he came across a blue dragoness brutally killing a group of hunters in a bloody scene. _'Hunters... Serves them right,'_ the green dragon thought, feeling no pity for the dragon slayers.

The frightened humans tried to run away from the dragoness, but only to be slaughtered by other angry dragons. The others tried to fight back with their now useless weapons and anything they got with them, but the dragoness was much quicker and experienced in close combat than they were. Plus, she was driven by a grief, rage and sorrow, which gave her more strength. There were also humans, who immediately realized, what they have done. However, they also knew that their fate was sealed the moment they became slayers and slavers. So they just stood there, ignoring others and waiting for vicious claws to take away their lives. The number of hunters was rapidly decreasing, now reduced to one hundred. As time went by, the human populace in the city was dropping rapidly from death by dragons and humans who were lucky to escape into the outskirts. Even the buildings were getting torn, burned down, or crumbled by the dragons' might. Aeolus kept on killing and killing every person, both civilian and fighter, until he saw a hunter going at the blue dragoness with a knife. The green dragon quickly zapped him to death before the man could touch her with blade. The dragoness turned instantly to find the electrified corpse of the hunter. She quickly found the reason of his death, who happened to be the emerald-greed dragon himself. Nodding to him in thanks, she shoved the corpse so he would drop the knife, grabbed the knife and continued to kill the humans, now with less brutality, but with more thinking. She carefully watched the number of humans killed.

Aeolus kept helping the blue dragoness to kill off the hunters until soon there was none left. Time went by with the city becoming more desolated and destroyed with hundreds of human bodies laying dead; the survivors escaped the city and went out into the desert. Aeolus went over to a dying man, who was lying face flat breathing and bleeding, and stomped down on his head to crush it. There was another survivor nearby, which happened to be a man, presumably around 25 years old, with a gash on his foot. The dragoness immediately leaped to him, pinned him to the ground, and telepathically said to other dragons not to interrupt. Then she looked at the man. **"Drop all of the weapons you have with you. Every single one,"** she ordered with grim expression on her face.

**"No, you lizard,"** snarled the man. The dragoness just raised her eyebrow and gestured to look around. Human did so to see a lot of dragons that were staring right at him.

**"I can just leave you here at their mercy, and I doubt that they will spare you. Now do as I said: drop off. Every. Weapon. You have. NOW,"**she said the final word with a growl. Shaken, the man began to quickly set aside everything he had: pistol, some sort of a rifle, a pair of combat knives, a phone, a grenade and camera. Rina immediately took away the grenade and knives, setting them out of human's reach.

Aeolus looked at the lone human survivor and asked mockingly under his cold and disapproving expression, **"So human, how does it feel to have all your technological powers, family, friends, and rule stripped away from you all in one night? How does it feel to have the tables turned against you after all the dragons around the world grew tired of being your third-class slaves and retaliated in revenge. You arrogant fools should have thought of the consequences when you first threw us in cages and killed the others for sport. Because of what you've done, your kind has paid for your current generation and your ancestors' actions in blood. And I doubt my fellow dragons will stop until every last human dead has fulfilled their thirst for revenge."**

The man just laughed and said, **"So what? What are you going to do about this? Annihilate all humans or something? I know you want to, ya lizards. Now that you threw out your magic thing and now we can't use even a microwave! SO WHAT?"**

**"I am not going to kill you,"** said the dragoness suddenly, but the human just mockingly laughed again. Then she added, **"But I can make so and I WILL do so that you will never be the same as you are now. Tell me, did any human return to your town with a certain mark on their backs?"**

**"Well... yeah. What of it?"** huffed the man.

**"Now tell me, what did you do to those humans?"**

**"Well, we tortured and killed them, since they... befriended you, lizards... or something... wait..." **Suddenly, the human's face became ill as he realized what what about to happen to him and said, **"You are not going to..."**

**"Yes, I am,"** nodded the dragoness. **"And believe me, it is much worse than you think. Even worse than death... well, for you murderers, that is."** She roughly turned him around and exposed his back. There she began to draw her clan's mark with her claws. Of course it was painful for a man, but it was bearable, so he didn't gave any sort of scream. But he was afraid; very afraid.

Aeolus watched the dragoness carve some kind of insignia on the man's back. He didn't know the exact purpose of putting it on the human, but from what the man said about the marked humans who befriended dragons, Aeolus guessed that she was going to frame him as an ally of dragons so that the other humans will turn on him like a pack of wolves. _'This should be a fate quite fitting for someone who kills their own kind, even though these people would side with dragons for some reason,'_ he thought. Come of think of it, the disaster dragon found it rather odd and peculiar that there were some humans who would befriend his kind at the cost of getting punished by others, whom a majority were about enslaving dragonkind. But he was quite suspicious of their motives, because he had befriended some humans before who pretended to be dragon sympathizers, but in the end they all ended up betraying him.

But Aeolus thought wrong; when the dragoness was done with drawing a sign, she let the man go. But immediately after that she started to quickly chant words that were forming a Curse. As soon as the man stood up, he fell back on the ground, screaming with pain. The mark was glowing now and with each word chanted, the glow became larger and larger. Soon every dragon nearby began to receive telepathic signals, which were telling them information about the man. His physical and mental condition, emotions, name, thoughts. But most importantly, what he has done: participating in annihilation of the clan of Eternal Wind and personally killing 6 dragons with 2 of them being children. When the dragoness finished the Curse, the human whose name was Simon went limp on the ground, not being able to move from all the pain that was racing through his body seconds ago. **"This is your punishment, human,"** said the dragoness coldly. **"Now every dragon nearby knows what you have done. The guilt and the memories of your crime will haunt you, until you try to actually think about it and change yourself. Death is a too swift punishment for the likes of you. That means you don't have to worry about being killed by dragons or attempting suicide. And I doubt that you would be killed by another human after the Spell. But don't think that you are free, human. Like I said, the memories will haunt you and painful memories tend to be sharper than claws."**

Aeolus growled to the man as well, "**You had better learn from your past, if you wish to get on our good side and live in peace for the rest of your miserable life."**

Simon passed out from the exhaustion the Curse caused, but deep in his mind, both dragon's words were "carved" in his memory._'Maybe this lizard is just scaring me. It has to be!'_ were his thoughts before passing out.

The disaster dragon read what was in Simon's head and thought, _'Deny us all you want, but you'll know how it plays out for you later.'_ Then he took a better look at the mark for a few moments before recognizing the familiar mark he heard about in stories shared by fellow slaves a long time ago. Then he asked the blue dragoness, **"That mark on his back; it looks like it belongs to a clan. Would you happen to be of the Eternal Wind clan?"**

The dragoness turned her head to him and replied with somewhat sorrow tone, **"Yes, I am from the clan of Eternal Wind, which ceased it's physical existence three days ago. Now it exists only in memory."**

Aeolus felt pity for her and said, **"I'm quite sorry to hear. You have my sympathies, Miss... I'm sorry, what's you name?"**

**"It's Rina; Rina Windcutter,"** she said, **"and thank you." **Then she looked away over to the side as if she was mourning something that was over in that direction.

**"You're welcome, Rina, and may your clan rest in peace now that it has been avenged. Farewell and take care,"** said the dragon. Then he walked off and picked a some dead humans to eat so that he could fill his belly before traveling out of the city. The meat was definitely a lot tastier than the horrid foods the slavers had given him, but there was the nuisance of the clothing that felt inedible to eat. So Aeolus remove these covers and enjoyed his nude meal. After his hunger was satisfied, Aeolus left the city and traveled across the desert lands. It felt good to finally be out of human habitat, because now he can enjoy his newfound liberty of a better life. He went on for while until he got to a destroyed village where dragon bodies and a few human hunters were lain dead with dried blood and flesh eating by vultures and maggots on the ground. Among that village was the Eternal Wind Clan insignia on the tall rock. He recalled earlier of Rina looking off towards the side with a sad look on her face. _'So this is where she lives. No wonder why she looked off in this direction like that and now I've stumbled upon her home. I should give this clan a proper burial,'_ thought Aeolus. He started to dig up holes here in clan territory to make as it felt right for the clan to be rested here at home. After that was done, he proceed to putting the dragons in their graves and fill the holes back with dirt to prevent their bodies from being desecrated any further by scavengers. No burial was made for the humans as they were taken out of the village to be laid to waste away from sacred grounds.

After finishing burying the Eternal Wind clan in their graves, the dragon decided to rest here for the night after all the hard work, his first job not ordered by humans, he did. He went to the tallest rock and carved words in Draconic language, "Here lies the Eternal Wind Clan." The green dragon went to one of the caves and went to inside. He would need a lot of energy to make the journey to a biome suited to his breed, such as a forest or a volcanic area, where he would make his home. But more preferably the woods, since there was plenty of food that thrived there.

* * *

When Rina reached her now destroyed village, she noticed that the bodies were no longer there. She noticed that the sand is slightly deformed in places and guessed that someone buried the bodies. _'Perhaps it was Aeolus... that was his name, if I'm not mistaken...'_ she thought, recalling to hear this name from a group of magis. She closed her eyes in appreciation and when her eyes opened again, Rina headed the place she knew that would give her an answer to her question; her chieftain's cave. She stopped near the cave, which belonged to her best friend, Itakira; someone was there. Her suspicions cleared, as she recognized the emerald-green dragon, or rather Aeolus, from before. For the first time after the disaster, she smiled.

* * *

**Author's Note**

This story starts off with a never-before-seen backstory, albeit rushed, to give more depth to Aeolus's character. The last part of this chapter is probably the only time I will use the POV of another person's character. On the next chapter will go back to Atlas who will be fighting a bunch of nasty man-made half-dragon monsters to save her family.

Aeolus, Bam, and Selicia (c) me  
Rina and Simon (c) TheTron852

I think there was a wind dragon breed at the completed dragon request board. But I went with my imagined version for Aeolus's mother's breed.


	4. Hybrids

**Chapter 3: Hybrids**

Meanwhile at the woods, the Firestar family were patiently waiting for their sister/aunt to reach them. **"Mommy, when will we see Aunt Atlas?"** asked a young black-striped whiptail hatchling named Danielle, who was curious about her mother's sister whom she'll be meeting. Will Atlas look big and strong? How nice is she? Those were the kinds of questions the hatchlings had about their aunt.

The red whiptail dragoness looked down at her and gently patted her daughter with her thin tail as she answered, **"Don't worry, dear. She'll be hear soon."  
**  
John, the black balloon dragon, picked up some approaching hostile scents and alerted, **"Flarina! I smell hybrids. We have to get out of here!"  
**  
The dragonesses looked alert and scared as Flarina said, **"Hybrids?! Oh no... why can't we ever get them off our tails?"**Flarina was one of the dragon slaves, whose whiptail DNA was used to grant super speed to the artificially-created half-human, half-dragon beings known as hybrids, made for the purpose of being super biological weapons against dragons. The humans would breed their slaves and then implant and manipulate various genes in the embryo to create warriors with the best traits of the dragon types they had. Flarina herself had a few hybrid children, but she refused to call those monsters her own. To her, Danielle and Kylie were the only real offspring that she had with John after she managed to escape the lab.

**"Mommy, we got to go!"** Kylie cried, pressuring her mother to take them away quickly. She was a magenta-colored balloon hatchling with matching colored horns on her head, an orange underbelly, orange mouth, and the upper part of her face was black.

**"I know; hang on, girls!"** Flarina said as she carried her daughters on her back and took off into the air as her tail wrapped around her inflated mate's foot to pull him along, since he can't float fast enough to escape their pursuers. The family flew fast over the horde of trees as the dragoness sent a telepathic message to her sister, _'Atlas, if you're out here in the woods, don't come looking for us, because right now we're being chased by those wretched hybrids. I'll let you know when it's all clear.'_

* * *

Atlas flew on through the sky over the rampaging catastrophe that was happening in the city. After she made a corner around a skyscraper, she suddenly crashed into a yellowish dragoness. The impact made the magi fall down towards the ground as she moaned, **"Whoaaaa!"** To she save herself from a very rough landing, she used her wind magic to create a large gust of wind to blow towards herself and the other falling dragoness to break their falls. After regaining control, Atlas softened the wind to let them land on their feet before gradually letting the spell disappear. That was when she heard her sister's message and became worried. _'You're being chased by what?! Flarina, I can't ignore this and let those dragon-killing scums get to you. I'm coming over!'_ she said telepathically.

_'But Atlas, there's only 10 of them and they're all really fast. I'm worried they'll tear you apart if you try to fight them. Please stay down,'_ her sister warned.

The magi reminded her, _'Flarina, I'm a long-time champion of dragon tournaments and I've fought lots of tough opponents, even a few whiptails. There's nothing I can't handle; even if I'm fighting multiple numbers. I promise you that once those half-breeds see me, they'll be dead and wishing they didn't cross me.' _She took off back into the air and resumed her flight to get to her family in time whilst using her wind magic to make herself go faster.

* * *

The further the family got over the woods, the more distance increased between them and their wingless pursuers. However, the five winged hybrids, unhindered by the trees not in their path, were still at the same distance from when Flarina took flight. When the lion-like hybrid spat a fireball at the dragoness's wing, she yelped and jerked in pain, causing Kylie to fall off.**"Mommy!"** screamed the balloon hatchling.

**"Kylie!"** cried the worried mother. She flew down to catch her falling daughter. Kylie fell past the branches and inflated herself in hopes of softening her fall; it worked. She slowed down gracefully like an autumn leaf as she floated towards the ground. The whiptail dragoness caught up to her daughter and asked, **"Oh Kylie, are you alright?"**

**"She won't be after we're through with you and your wretched family!"** spoke the mocking and ghoulish tone of one of the land hybrids. The hybrids all caught up to them and surrounded the family.

Flarina glared at the hybrid, she was most familiar with, but hated to the core. **"Ramkot!"** she growled.

**"Ah hello, mother. I see you're quite happy to see me,"** said the black-maned red hybrid sneeringly.

**"I'm not your mother, you heartless murderer!"** Flarina retorted harshly.

**"Oh really? Our blood seems to say so otherwise. After all, it was you who laid my egg and gave birth to me. In fact, it was thanks to you, that I'm running around killing dragons left and right. So who's the real murderer here, bitch?"**Ramkot reminded her. The other hybrids laughed and chuckled.

John got angry at the ridiculing hybrids and yelled, **"The humans made you, not Flarina! She didn't want any part in this. But yet your horrible creators forced her along with other dragons against their will to conceive monsters like you!"** He shook his fist at them.

**"And last time I checked, dragons were monsters. In fact, we just saw a city go up in flames just now. You, animals, aren't so different from the rest of us,"** the hybrid leader said.

**"At least we have heart. As for the city thing, we were just rebelling to fight for our freedoms. And I'll be honest that a lot of humans have died in the process, but that was for revenge against everything that has been done to us as well as to prevent other innocent dragons from getting hurt by them. But you, Ramkot; you just kill for your sick twisted pleasure, just like your human masters,"** the balloon dragon growled.

Ramkot scoffed, **"Heh, and I have no shame in doing what I think is fun. Besides, revenge isn't that much different than from why I kill. Anyway enough talk, it's time for you scalies to die and for mother to go back to the lab where she belongs." Then he made a cruel smirk at his mother and said, "Flarina, say goodbye to boyfriend and your baby brats!"** Flarina quickly wrapped her forelegs around her screaming frightened daughters and shielded them with her wings as she breathed fire at any hybrid who dared to get within her proximity. John did his best to fend them off as well using his black magic spells to cast at them. Ramkot used the power of his golden wyvern genes to create a nightmarish illusion that would scare the dragons into letting their guards down. However, Flarina having full knowledge of every skill and trick, her illegitimate son uses, was not deceived when she 'saw' her children turning into fearsome snarling demons.

John, knowing Ramkot's trick as well after having been in it two times, saw the world around him turn into red hellish skull-like faces and his foes disappear into nothing, rending the hybrids 'invisible' to him, but he knew they were still there. He did his best not to pay attention to faces as he tried to spam his spells in random directions, but not in the direction where he last saw Flarina, as she too had seemed to disappear as well and he didn't want to risk hurting her.

The winged tiger hybrid took advantage of the blind-spot and attacked him from behind. She clamped her jaws down at him and scratched him with her claws. The balloon screamed in agony as three other hybrids jumped and attacked him, tearing blooding scars onto his black pelt. The white one with a bladed tail thrust the blade into his back and stabbed his heart. John froze in shock as blood started to rush to his mouth. The white hybrid withdrew her tail and let the father fall over dead. **"John!"** Flarina screamed in horror and heartbreak. Her mate, the one had given her love, care, her precious daughters, and the promise of reuniting with Atlas, had fallen victim before her very eyes.

Very soon, the smell of John's blood filled the air, causing all the hybrids to go into their dreaded hunter's mode. Ramkot laughed evilly and said, **"Oh how breathe-taking, the smell of dragon blood. It makes me energetic, it makes me feel pleasure, it makes me want to RELEASE THE BEAST INSIDE ME!"** Then he looked at Flarina and the hatchlings and snarled, **"MOTHER, FORGET TAKING YOU BACK! I JUST WANT TO KILL EVERYTHING IN SIGHT!"** Then the hybrids ran towards the family, who ducked in fear.

**"Get away from my sister, you filthy mutt monkeys!"** shouted an angry voice. Then a fire beam spell was launched at eight of the hybrids, who blasted away. Ramkot and the fox hybrid were lucky to have evaded the spell by jumping out of the way.

Flarina looked at her sister, coming into the clearing, and cried, **"Atlas!"**

The hatchlings looked at their aunt for the first time and Danielle asked, **"That's Aunt Atlas?"**

**"Yes it is, Danielle. And she's here to save us,"** the mother confirmed.

The hybrids turned their attention to Atlas, who was snarling threateningly at them. **"Another chew toy, this will be fun!"**Ramkot said. The magi shot fireballs at the hybrids, who quickly ran to avoid them. Then they all got onto her as they raked their claws and bit her with their sharp teeth. The dragoness snarled and tried to shake off her attackers before her body became blazed with the fire aura. The hybrids yowled and jumped off her when the flames burned them. But Ramkot, having some bit of resistance to them intense stings of the flames thanks to the golden scales beneath his red fur, stay on his aunt. He climbed towards her head, seeking to rip out her eye. Atlas felt him and turned her head around to bite down at him, but missed when jumped on of her snout.

When he raised his claw to attack, Flarina spew a fireball at him, throwing Ramkot off of Atlas. The magi pushed her paw down on the fallen hybrid leader and growled, **"You must be Ramkot."**

**"Yeah and what's of it, maggot?"** the hybrid growled.

**"Flarina told me how much of a disgusting little twat you are! I'm going to do her and everyone else a huge favor by getting rid of you and your half-breed buddies!"** Atlas growled.

**"I'd like to see you try, worm. That is, if you can kill all ten of us. But I doubt you'll be able to,"** Ramkot challenged.

**"Don't underestimate me, mutt! I'm a dragon tournament champion and I've killed over a 100..."** Then Atlas got interrupted by laser shots spewed out by the blue-footed gray hybrid who changed into his dragon form. Then the winged gray hybrid blew out her fire aura with the strong gust of wind from his wings. After that, a winged green human-dragon cross flew in and delivered punches and a hard kick to Atlas's face, which was followed by the tiger hybrid biting down onto the magi's neck and pulled her head backwards to expose her jugular. The white hybrid went in for the kill by jumping at the dragoness with his blade tail forward. To save herself, Atlas used her wind aura spell blow away the hybrid hard into a tree behind Flarina, who ducked her head down to avoid having the creature fly into her.

The impact hurt the white hybrid and knocked the breath out of him. Flarina grabbed him by the long thin tail with her teeth and started slamming the hybrid again and again on the ground. The lion hybrid saw that and went to save his friend by shooting radiation balls from his mouth to hit the whiptail. Flarina snarled in pain and let go of the white hybrid, who was now laying hurt on the ground.

Atlas, still in her wind aura to keep the hybrids at bay, froze the scarf-wearing human hybrid in ice from the air with her ice stream spell. He fell on the ground, trying to break free from his awfully cold cocoon. The magi would have taken his chance to kill him had Ramkot not freed him by using his fiery breath on the ice. Atlas glared at her nephew and growled, **"You bastard!"**The red hybrid smirked in return.

The dragoness cast her three of her ice spear spells at Ramkot, who dodged all of them swiftly and taunted her with a smirk. Provoked of her fury, the magi and yelled, **"Stop dodging you little mutt!"** Then she got pelted again with the lasers from the hybrid dragon. She hissed from the scalding pain on her side and wing. The shifted dragon blew out more lasers to damage her some more. Having enough of this, Atlas blocked the incoming shots with her rocky earth barrier spell, which protected her from all sides.

Having no way to attack their prey like this, Ramkot decided they were going to have to get through the barrier if they were kill Atlas. **"Heh, as if that's going to save your life. Someone, break through that rock. I want her to learn that nothing's going to save her hide,"** he told his comrades.

The blonde human hybrid punched his fist through the barrier and made a hole. There, he saw that a newly dug-out hole beneath the earthly cage. **"Hey, she's gone,"** he said.

**"What? How?"** Ramkot asked.

**"She just dug underground, sir,"** the blonde answered.

**"Well don't just stand there like a schoolgirl, go after her!"** the red hybrid yelled. Just then, an orange dragoness burst out from underground and sank her jaws down on the dragon hybrid's throat. The hybrid screamed in startled pain as he fought to shake her off, but Atlas was biting down harder on him, letting her teeth sink further into his flesh. Within the next second, she ripped his throat out and let blood gush out of the hole where the throat used to be. The dragon collapsed and upon his death, reverted back into the lean dark gray hybrid he was before his transformation.

Atlas ate the flesh she tore off and licked the blood around her lips. **"That was delicious! Now which one of you monkeys want to be my next meal?"** she asked leeringly.

The tiger hybrid got angry and snarled, **"Are you mocking us, dragon?! Because it's you who should be ours!"** With no thought to her next actions, she flew swiftly at the magi's neck and viciously bite and clawed at her with extreme prejudice. Atlas roared in hurt and used her fire aura spell to save her own life. The hybrid let out a loud scream of agony as she fell off and thrashed around on the ground as she fought the flames scalding away at her flesh. The magi took her into the big iron maiden that was her jaws and flew up into the air. Atlas wanted to kill another hybrid without the interruptions from the others on the ground.

She chewed on the hybrid's body as the teeth dug further and further into the body, breaking and detaching bones in the process. The tiger hybrid's loud blood-chilling scream sounded in the air above everyone. When it was over, Atlas spit out and let the dead and badly burned hybrid drop to the ground for everyone to see. **"Tonight, there will be roasted tiger meat! Too bad none of you half-breeds will there to enjoy it!"** she told them.

The hybrids glared, snarled, and growled at the magi, except for Ramkot, who was still cool under the tension. **"Confident, aren't we? Very well, fliers, take out the trash that's hovering up there. The rest of us will be killing off my family that's down there,"** he spoke his plan. The winged hybrids flew up to attack Atlas, while the land ones went to assassinate Flarina and her daughters.

Even though, the fliers were coming at her like jets, Atlas was prepared for it. She cast her wind aura that blew away the hybrids like leaves in the air, the moment they got within proximity. She cast her wind blades spell at the lion hybrid that cut into his wings' membranes. Now one would think that because of the damage, the feline could hardly keep his without feeling hurt from his wounds. But because the blood from their fallen comrades had added more aggression and determination to kill to the hybrids and weakened their reasoning and logic as a result, the lion hybrid paid no attention to his condition and retained his flight. The two human hybrids mindlessly with persistence tried to get past the wind aura with futile results. Atlas cast her ice spears at the two and killed them through the torso. Then she turned her attention to the gray hybrid, who blew his tornado breath at her, which hurled her across the air. **"Aarrrrr!"**

Flarina's thin tail grabbed the black hybrid by the foot, tripped her, and threw her away. Then the fox hybrid pulled over the whiptail's wings to reveal the frightened hatchlings, who screamed and shrunk back in terror. But fortunately, their mother was here to save them. So she breathed fire into the fox's eyes, causing the hybrid to back away in pain as she yowled from the burning blindness that was hurting her as well as the flames that covered her from head to shoulder. Flarina covered back her daughters before the white hybrid got back up. Then the creature ran up to Flarina and stabbed her deeply into the shoulder. The red whiptail let out a loud roar of agony, which caught Atlas's attention. **"Flarina!"** she cried. Out of anger, the magi flew over to her sister and cast her earth spear spell at the white hybrid, which was the last thing he saw before his untimely death. Then Ramkot got onto his mother's back and slashed her with his black claws, sending poison into her blood system. The red dragoness started to feel weak and feverish from poison. **"Flarina!"** Atlas cried after noticing what just happened. She turned to glare at her nephew and growl, **"You! What did you do to my sister?!"**

The red hybrid snickered and answered, **"I poisoned her with my claws. The gene of the bright-breasted wyvern gave me the poisonous claws which I was born with. Within a few minutes, she will die and then you and her brats will be next!"**

Suddenly, everyone heard an angry roar and looked to see a black dragoness lashing her tail from side to side and her wings flew open to make herself look intimidating. Anger coursed through her veins making her blood seem to boil, her aggressiveness was rising with each moment that passed making her more lethal for held back his snicker as he scratched Flarina again and said, **"Oh look, another one. I suppose she has a death wish, too."**

**"Get off of her!"** Atlas snarled firing her fireball spell at him. But as usual, the hybrid leader got off of the whiptail and evaded the attack. The flying hybrids flew down towards the black dragoness. Atlas cast a wind aura spell on Flarina from having the other hybrids attack her again. Then she cast fireballs at the fox hybrid, who got burned, and the black hybrid, who dodged her. Taking note of their fast speed, Atlas used her ice stream spell to have it travel across the land and freeze the ground into ice. The black hybrids ran towards Atlas, but then she slipped on the ice and fell down. The fox, still in pain and unable to see, also slipped. With them down, Atlas shot ice spears at the females, killing them both.

The black dragoness wasted no time in her attack; she launched herself at the gray hybrid with tremendous speed, barreling out of the way of his tornado breath. Once in range, her claws dug into the hybrid's side as her fire cloaked fangs sank into his shoulder blade, burning the flesh around the bite wound. The gray yowled out loud as he got bitten and burned. After she let go, the gray clutched his burn and hissed in pain. She swung back to be faced with yellow fireballs; the circular flames found there mark as it singed her underbelly causing her to screech in fury. Her crimson eyes flared with hatred as she spewed scorching blue flames from her jaws, aiming for the lion hybrid's face to inflict a temporary blinding status. The lion hybrid got blinded and hurt by the fire and flew around aimlessly as he roared. With the slight opportunity, the black dragoness landed beside the whiptail inspecting her injuries, she snarls with alert when she catches the strong scent of poison already in effect on the wounded dragoness. The gray hybrid went to retaliate by swooping down to the black dragoness and trying to bite and claw at her.

Atlas and Ramkot growled at each other as they walked in a circle, trying to get around the other. **"Look at your friends, half-breed. They all dropped down like the flies they are. How come you guys were built to slay dragons, but yet couldn't kill me? Huh?!"** Atlas growled.

**"That's because they were weak. But unlike them, I'm the strongest. Stronger than any hybrid, human, or dragon in this pathetic world. You won't find me easy to kill, lizard,"** Ramkot boasted.

Atlas brushed that off and said, **"Hah! That's just talk! If you want to prove something, you have to kill me!"**

**"Very well, I'll be glad to,"** said the red hybrid grinning sadistically.

The black dragoness twisted herself around to be slashed across the face by the hybrid's talons. The scar across her eye tore open again, blocking out her vision with the thick red liquid. She stumbled back roaring in pain as the gray hybrid sank its fangs deep into her neck. The black dragoness grabbed the hybrid's tail and tore him away from her neck, slamming him against the ground and knocking the breath out of him in the process. Her vision was clearing a little but the blood still blocked most of her vision. The black hissed, surrounding herself in a storm of blue flames as a protective barrier around herself to prevent the hybrid from getting too close. As this bought her some time, she watched both the leader hybrid and the magi dragoness carefully. The hybrid got back up and charged towards the dragoness without thinking about the blue flames around her body. As a consequence, he started burning and roaring in pain the moment he went through the barrier.

The dragoness took her chance to grab the hybird and throw him into a tree where his skull got hit. Now that he was fallen and stunned with dizziness, she spewed out blue fireballs after another to bombard and further torch the creature repeatedly. He thrashed around with each long scream filling the air as the flames melted away his fur and scales. Soon his vital organs decomposed thermally and the gray hybrid was no more.

Atlas cast a wind blade at Ramkot, who dodged to the side, but then slipped on the ice. With the hybrid down, this time the magi was able to hit him with another wind blade and another and so on. The cuts scratched him, but they didn't go deep enough to draw blood. Ramkot pushed himself back up and taunted, **"Hah! You can that a spell? All I felt were feathers tickling me."**

**"What?! You gotta be bluffing!"** Atlas yelled. She cast another wind blade at the hybrid, who fearlessly stood his ground and let the spell hit him on the golden part of his chest. The spell had left no scar on him what-so-ever.

Ramkot laughed and said, **"I'm not."** He separated the hairs in his fur to reveal golden scales beneath. **"You see my golden scales? They're from the genes of the gold dragon implanted within me. Gold dragons have the strongest scales of all the breeds of the world. They reduce a lot of damage dealt to them, which is the reason why humans hunt them down to obtain their pelts and make protective wears such as helmets, bulletproof armor, pads, and such. That's why your puny little spells can't hurt me."**

**"Then why the hell did you dodge if you know my spells weren't going to hurt you?!"** Atlas yelled.

The smirking hybrid answered, **"I just wanted to have fun messing with you, that's all. Of course since I've now revealed this little fact, I think it's time to stop playing around and end your pathetic little life."** Ramkot jumped at his aunt, who struck him first with her earth spears. He got hurled back and hit with minimum damage done to him in the form of soft throbbing pain. He took up the earth spear and threw it back at her. The sharp end of the rock struck Atlas on the foreleg when she tried to evade the counter-attack. Ramkot ran at her in a dashing speed faster with his black claws reaching out for the poisonous touch on the magi. Atlas was not quick enough to react and defend herself from her nemesis, but an untimely fireball came to her rescue as it struck the hybrid in the eyes.

**"Aaaahhhhh! No, my eyes! They're burning!"** screamed Ramkot as he swatted painfully at his own green eyes to put out the fires that were torturing him. He may have golden scales to protect his hide, but there definitely weren't any on his eyes for sure.

The magi looked to her dying sister, who was the one who spewed out the fireball. The poison seemed to have taken its toll on her by the way she looked weak with her breathing being slow. The whiptail gave her sister one last smile before her head fell down and her eyes closed into eternal slumber. **"Flarina, no!"** Atlas cried desperately.

The hatchlings poked their heads out from their mother's arms and shouted, **"Mommy!"**

Atlas turned her head to glared at her nephew with more hatred and anger than ever. Ramkot had taken away her sister and robbed her nieces of their parents. He was going to pay and Atlas would make sure he damn will. Summoning up lots of magic energy for a devastating spell, Atlas's body began to glow into a flashing light so bright, that the hatchlings had to turn away and the black dragoness to shield her head with her wings to avoid getting blind. Energy particles made their way to the magi's mouth to charge up the spell source. After energy particles were built up, Atlas was now ready to cast the spell. _'Now die!'_ she thought as if she was speaking to Ramkot. The light beam shot out of her mouth into Ramkot and obliterated him into ashes. Apparently, golden scales weren't strong enough to shield anyone against a powerful spell such as the light beam.

Now with the last of the hybrids gone, Atlas went over to her nieces who were trying in vain to nudge their parents awake.**"Come on, mommy, wake up,"** said Danielle, who was pressing her paws into Flarina's neck.

**"Wake up, daddy!"** said Kylie, shaking John's head back and forth. **"Why wun you get up?"**

The magi looked at her nieces in silence with pity and sadness. How was she going to explain this to her innocent young nieces without hurting their feelings? **"We'll have to to tell them the truth,"** said the black dragoness walking up next to Atlas in a melancholic tone.

Atlas turned her head to her and murmured seriously, **"What? Are you kidding me? They're just kids! They're too young to know this stuff!" **She didn't want darken their bright and happy view of the world; that would kinda ruin their childhood.

The black countered back with reason, **"But they just saw their parents get killed in the fight, did they not? Plus we even killed those savages ourselves. Now that they've seen death, it's time for them to understand it. We have to tell them that their parents aren't coming back."**

The stranger seemed to have a point; there was no use hiding it anymore. So with as much regret, Atlas went over to the hatchlings, hoping that she could soften up the truth to a white lie or least just a little. Danielle looked up at her aunt and asked, **"Aunt Atlas, why won't mommy and daddy get up?"** She looked desperate for help in reviving her parents.

The magi sighed quietly and replied, **"Because they can't... Because they're never coming back to us again."**

Kylie raised her head and asked, **"What? Why not?"**

**"Well it's because..."** Atlas's eyes shifted away from the hatchlings as she tried to think of what else to say.

After a few seconds of pausing, the whiptail hatchling asked, **"Because what?"**

**"Because..."** the aunt said before the black dragoness walked up next to her to finish the sentence.

**"Because your mother and father's souls are now among the stars,"** the stranger said.

**"Da stars?"** asked the sisters simultaneously.

**"You mean dhey're dead?"** asked Kylie, looking hurt with tears about to form in her cute black eyes.

The black's interruption had given Atlas an idea on what to say, much to her appreciation. **"No, no, they're not dead! They're just alive in spirit, kids. Their bodies may not move anymore, but they'll be watching over us from sky at night, making sure that both of you are being good hatchlings. Though you may not hear them, they'll always be with you,"** she said.

**"Really?"** asked Danielle.

**"Really. So don't you two cry, because remember that they're always alive, no matter what! And no one, no matter how hard they try, is ever going to kill them,"** the aunt said with a smile.

The hatchlings, now no longer feeling sad, replied, **"Okay."**

**"Now look to the stars and say hi to your mommy and daddy, while me and the other dragoness make graves for your parents so that the wild animals don't eat their bodies,"** said Atlas. She used her earth magic to open up the ground and make big enough holes to fit Flarina and John.

The sisters looked up at the dark starry sky and waved to it. **"Hi mommy! Hi daddy!"** they said.

The black dragoness pushed John into his grave, while Atlas did the same with Flarina. The magi looked down at her sister one last time for as many seconds she could take. She closed her eyes and paid respected to the departed as she prayed, _'Goodbye Flarina. Your daughters and I will miss you. Say hi to our parents and everybody we know up there for me, will you?'_ Then she sealed up back the earth to finish the grave. The magi turned to the stranger and said, **"Thanks for all you've done here."**

**"You're welcome. I'm glad we were able to save the hatchlings, but it's too we can't say the same thing for your sister and her mate,"** said the dragoness.

**"Yeah, it sucks that some things in life don't go the way you hoped for. Well I got to go find the kids and I a place to sleep and eat our dinner at. You take care out there, alright?"**

**"I will. I hope the rest of your night goes well."** Then the dragoness flew off.

Atlas looked at her nieces and said, **"Come on, girls. We're going to find a place to camp out for tonight."** She put her nieces on her back and flew off to look for a cave. She spotted one in the mountains and went inside. This cave had a hot spring inside for a nice warm bath and relaxation. She put the hatchlings down inside before she left to go retrieve the hybrids to feed herself and her nieces. It was too bad that Ramkot was dust now, because she wanted to eat him and share his pieces with her nieces as pay back for what he had done. Using the mental image of the cave she had seen, the magi teleported herself and the hybrids there. The hatchlings were taken by surprise at their aunt's sudden appearance into the cave like that. They were also curious as to why she had brought these dead monsters home. **"Eat up, kids! These scums here will be your dinner for tonight."** Atlas took up the fox hybrid and ate her. The nieces looked at the dead bodies hesitantly as the sight of them brought back bad memories and fear. The aunt noticed them standing still and encouraged them, **"Relax kids, those half-breeds are dead. They aren't going to hurt you. You can eat them."**

The whiptail hatchling went up to the green-scaled human hybrid and sniffed him a little. Then she took little bites of the flesh and ate them. Seeing that the hybrid didn't move; the Danielle grew more confident eating her enemy. But Kylie, on the other hand, didn't bother to eat and said, **"Aunt Atlas, I can't eat meat. Can I have fruits instead?"** Some dragons were carnivores while others, like the balloon hatchling, were herbivores.

**"No meat, huh? Well let me go see what I can find for you out there. I'll be right back,"** said the magi before she took off out of the cave. She used her fire aura to light her way in the darkness as she flew over the trees, looking for any that bore fruits. Soon she found an apple tree and reduced the flames until they were only on her head frill. She landed on the ground and checked the apples to see if any of them were fresh. There were a few that had holes on them made from insects feeding on them, but the others were fresh and safe to eat. Atlas tore the fresh fruits off the trees and carried them in her mouth back to the cave. Upon arriving back home, she dropped the four apples in front of her biped niece and said, **"Here you go!"**

Kylie took up two of the apples and started eating them. Atlas froze the other two for tomorrow, before she picked up the gray and black hybrids and ate them. Then froze the others in long-lasting ice to preserve theme for tomorrow. Now with their bellies full and the devoured hybrids were now bones, the family went to sleep. Because of her sister's death, Atlas has developed an immerse hatred for hybrids. Tomorrow morning, she was going to find that lab and destroy every scientist and hybrid there, that is if the captured slaves didn't get to them first.

* * *

**Author's Note**

The last few moments of the fight between Atlas and Ramkot as well the end of the battle are different than it was in the RP, because I forgot to read the last part before I wrote in the scenes. But hey, at least Flarina died a noble death unlike the rushed original.

Atlas, Flarina, John, Danielle, Kylie, and Ramkot (c) me  
Darkness (c) DarknessDragon197


	5. Blind Hatred

**Chapter 4: Blind Hatred  
**  
Kathia sat by one of the trees as her mind was lost in despair and shock about the loss of her home and most importantly, her family. **"Mom... Daddy..."** she whispered to herself. Images of Mr. Rittevon being eaten alive and Mrs. Rittevon getting burned down would haunt her tonight and everyday from now on. Her throat choked with sobs being very quiet at first until they gradually became louder to the point where Kathia was crying and wailing.

**"Miss? Are you alright? Are you hurt?"** someone girl looked up to the concerned voice and through watery eyes, she saw what looked like a black & white hybrid holding a damp cloth to his nose standing in front of her. He had cyan-tinted white hair with blue eyes, and wore goggle and a big brown collar with a light blue stripe around his neck. Now scared out of her wits, she started sobbing out louder, thinking that this "thing" was going to kill her like the other dragons. The hybrid slowly moved a bit closer and said, **"I'm not going to hurt you..."** He paused when three men, who have heard Kathia's cries, came by to see what was up with her.

**"Hey, what's going on over there?"** one of them asked. Then when they saw the hybrid, they all got alarmed and cried, **"Oh shoot, it's another dragon!"**

The other man said, **"Hang on, I'll chase it out of here."** Taking out a knife, he walked up towards the hybrid swinging his knife and yelled, **"Scram, dragon! Get your butt out of here!"**

**"Nnngh?"** the hybrid groaned momentarily, cocking an eyebrow at their initial reaction and tilting his head slightly in a misunderstanding head-shake. Then he caught the man's wrist with his free hand and held it firmly.

The man was taken by surprised and murmured, **"What?!"** He tried to twist his hand free in hopes to get himself away before the creature would attack him, but it was futile under the hybrid's strong grip.

**"I'm trying to help, thanks. I'm not a dragon... not exactly..."** the hybrid trailed off, giving the man a slight shove back as he released him.

**"What?! Not a dragon? Then what are you?"** the other man asked as they were all confused. Maybe he was just some guy in a costume? But it looked too real to tell.

The hybrid stared at the men blankly for a moment before answering, **"I'm a mechanic."** He looked back to Kathia and answered, **"I came out of the shop and saw everything go crazy... I heard her crying and thought she might be hurt..."**Then he moved in front of the girl and crouched down to her level. **"So, are you alright?"** he asked again.

Kathia heard, but hadn't listening to everything, due to being lost in her grief. So when the creature got near her, she backed away and cried, **"Get away from me!"**

The hybrid shook his head and picked up one of her hands, holding it firmly in his, yet not to hurt her. His other hand lightly pet the top of her head. **"Hey, hey. Just calm down. You're alright,"** he said quietly, seeing she had no major injuries. **"What happened?"**

The girl immediately calmed down when the creature didn't mean any harm to her. **"Dragons... they killed my parents. They ate daddy and they kill my mom with a fireball,"** she told her story. **"They were everywhere; they killed our guards and servants and burned down the neighborhood. It was horrible!" **

Everyone felt pity for the teen after listening to her little tale. The hybrid looked around and saw that the crowd was starting to thin as the main horde of people and dragons had already fled. **"We should probably move then. Are you okay to walk, or do you need assistance?"** he asked.

**"I'm fine. I was lucky not to get hurt by those horrible beasts, but... I just wish the same thing for my parents,"** said Kathia before she walked in the direction of where the other humans were going. When she got to the new camp, the humans had set up what tents they had carried for some, but not all the people to sleep in tonight. She went in line to get herself registered as a refugee and to get a free sleeping bag, provided there were any left. Luckily she was able to get one upon registration and found an empty tent that looked it hasn't been occupied. She went inside and got inside the sleeping bag to get some rest for tomorrow.

* * *

The next morning, Kathia woke up to the smell of smoke outside her tent. Her initial thought was that the camp was being attacked by dragons until she heard no screaming, but rather people chatting with each other. She got outside the tent and that the cooks were only cooking breakfast for the survivors. The meal consisted of foods from the cans, which were sausages, beans, and veggies. The redhead joined the line and waited for her turn to get her plate and drink. After she got her breakfast, she sat by the tree and started eating her food. The meal wasn't savory as the home-cooked foods made by her chefs or the gourmet food from the expensive restaurants, heck it was pretty bland; but it was all she had to eat if she wanted to fill her stomach.

Kathia was now finished with her breakfast and soon her thoughts took her back to last night when the dragons broke free and viciously attacked the whole city. Memories of her parent's deaths haunted her and left a scar in her mind._'Why? Why did this have to happen? How did this happen? I thought we had it all to keep those damn lizards under our control. What went wrong?'_she wondered in disbelief. Her eyes looked off to the side and saw a few lonely children who were saddened by the loss of their parents, then her sight drifted to everyone else who lost their loved ones._'Those monsters took everything from us and left us with despair. This isn't right! No one should have to suffer like this! Not me, my parents, or other people for that matter,'_ the girl thought with grief that eventually grew into anger. She got up with her fists clenched and yelled, **"Those dragons won't get away with this! I hope they all pay for this someday; every last blasted one of them! One way or another, something or someone will have to teach those monsters a lesson!"** Then she let out an angry that caught the attention of the refugees, who wondered what was up with the redhead.

* * *

Atlas used fire magic to unfreeze some of the hybrids and the apples out of their icy cocoons. She cast fire aura around the hybrids to heat them to a temperature that was comfortable for the magi and Danielle to eat. The spell was weakened to harmless flames so that hybrids will be warmed up without getting burned black. The apples were left alone as they were fine for Kylie to eat cold. When the bodies were done cooking, Atlas dispelled the fire auras and served the breakfast to herself and Danielle.

Minutes after breakfast was over, Atlas put the hybrid bones to the side and turned to the mouth of the cave. Her nieces saw her leaving and wondered what was up. **"Aunt Atlas, were are you going?"** asked Danielle.

The magi stopped for a minute and answered gruffly, **"I'm going to tear down the lab that created the monsters who killed your parents."** After last night's event, there were a few things in mind that Atlas felt compelled to do to carry out her revenge: destroy the lab, kill the hybrids, and their creators who made them. **"I'll be back, girls. Don't leave the cave or talk to strangers while I'm gone,"** she told them.

**"Alright, take care, Aunt Atlas,"** Kylie said to her.

The dragoness flew out of her home and went to look for the lab. Unfortunately, the place was hard to find since she knew nothing of its location. _'Damn, this would be easier, if I could ask Flarina where the place is at. But she's dead... Grr! I can't wait to find it and when I do, I'll rip them all to shreds!'_ Atlas thought angrily. It took her about an hour to finally find the place she was looking for. The image of the lab, Flarina once shared with her, made it easy for Atlas to recognize; well almost. The building looked rundown with some of the windows being broken and a few holes on the walls from top to bottom. She landed at the door and broke it down with to get inside. The magi went through hallways and rooms to look for the scientists and their creations. She noticed that the place had been abandoned apparently as there were dust everywhere. Even more curious was the foul smell looming around in the atmosphere. She finally found a hybrid lying on her path, but it was a skeleton. _'Well good riddance! A good hybrid is a dead one!'_ the dragoness thought. Soon, she came across another skeleton of hybrid and one that belonged to a human. The further along she went, the more corpses she saw of the two species. _'What the heck? Did someone kill these things a long time ago?'_ Atlas thought. _'How and why?'_ If it was dragons, then they must have been lucky to rebel and free themselves from their enemies without the need for the Spell.

But how wrong she was, because as soon as she entered the room where the slaves used to be kept, she found many dragon skeletons. **"What?!"** the dragoness gasped. Looks like they were behind the massacre. Territorial as some dragons were, it was highly unlikely for at least the strongest slave to go against everybody. And what would the humans gain by betraying their fellow scientists? Atlas came to the conclusion that the culprits were hybrids. The proof of that was the small claw marks she had seen on the walls, on the tables, and on the equipment. _'It was probably Ramkot and his friends that did this,'_ she thought._'Well they're dead now, but what if there are others out there?'_ She couldn't bring her nieces outside to play yet, unless she knew for sure that these monsters were extinct. Perhaps she should check the whole lab first, in case there were hybrids here. Atlas went to search while sometimes calling to lure the creature over to her. **"Alright you mangy half-breed, come out wherever you are! I'm a hybrid-slayer who's here to rip you to bloody pieces like you did with everyone else here!"**she challenged.

After a long while of searching the whole lab, Atlas found no living being. She went back to the lobby room she entered from and was about to head out the door, when a small golden dragon came out of the shadows and asked, **"Who are you?"**

**"I'm Atlas,"** the magi answered. **"Are you one of the lab's slaves? What happened here? I came here to destroy the hybrids and scientists, but everyone around here is dead."**

**"No, I just hid here since last night... everyone lost their minds and went on rampages,"** the dragonet said idly. He looked around at his surroundings and made a quiet snort of laughter. **"This place has been abandoned for years. Everyone is dead. Rumor was that a hybrid rampaged over the place and destroyed everything. Even the computers."** Then he introduced himself, **"Name's Akuma."**

**"Well your rumor's probably right, Akuma, because those dead guys seem like they were done in by a hybrid. I encountered 10 of them last night and killed them all after they took away the parents of my nieces."** The magi looked down and shook her head sadly and said, **"Those poor girls; they didn't need to lose their parents this early. They're only a month old."** _'And I didn't need to lose my sister this early after the Spell,'_ she thought. She looked back up and continued, **"I hope the hybrid who did this was one of the ones I killed. We don't need those blood-crazed killers running around outside."**

Akuma stared at Atlas blankly. He faintly felt his left eye twitch. His eyes narrowed slightly at Atlas as he responded coldly,**"Yeah sure. Anything else?"**

The magi noticed that tone and thought, _'What's his problem?'_ She didn't bother ask him about, so instead she answered his question, **"No. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a lab to destroy and burn down. So I need you to get out while you still can. I want to put an end to the place that created those monsters for good."** And to keep any human who wonders in from getting any ideas from the lab's secrets to make their living weapons; not that they could since the Spell destroyed all their technology.

**"Tch,"** Akuma huffed quietly, swinging his head to the side to vent annoyance. The gold dragonet walked past Atlas. **"Yeah, monsters,"** he repeated quietly as he passed her. With the winged hatchling gone out the door, the dragoness proceeded to get to the highest floor of the building from there, she started busting down walls to get to the insulators and thermal protections keeping the steel columns from getting burned by fire. She ripped them off and kept pulling more of them until she couldn't anymore. So she cut part of them off with her wind magic and let the other half fall down the interior tunnel. After that, she started casting fireballs everywhere in the room, igniting objects, equipment, and everything. Then she cast her strong fire beam spell at the unprotected steel column. She did the same process over again each time she went down a floor. By the time she was finished with all sections of the lab, Atlas came outside for fresh air. Her flames may not destroy the exterior of the lab, but at least she could do some damage to the interior. Next time, she was coming back with fuel to finish the job for good.

As she walked through the woods, she encountered what seemed to be a human boy with horns on his head. Atlas noticed that a particular scent that she smelled from him. Normally, humans and halflings would smell like humans; although halflings smelled a bit less than their purebred counterparts. This person had dragon scent on him, which means he was a hybrid. **"Oh great, another one. I better put him out while he's still asleep,"** she said to herself. Then she cast an ice spear at him.

But unfortunately, the hybrid woke up and saw the glimmer of a spear. He scrambled to roll over, narrowly missing being skewered. **"You again! You already interrupted my sleep once!"** he shouted at the magi dragon. His chest rose and fell rapidly as he calmed himself from his near-death experience.

**"What? That voice!"** Atlas murmured to herself as she recognized how the hybrid sounded. **"You're a hybrid?!"** she asked. She should have known Akuma was one after he sounded angry when she brought up the conversation on his species.

Akuma sat up and stiffened slightly.**"Yeah I'm a hybrid,"** he snorted.**"Suuuuuure, WE'RE the monsters, but you're the one going around DA DA-DA trying to STAB people!"** Akuma growled. He still felt tired, but that didn't stop his loudmouth from running nonstop.

**"Hah! Says you, the killing machine,"** the dragoness growled back. **"You were born for the purpose of slaying dragons. You even go into an uncontrollable killing spree when you smell blood. Someone has to exterminate you freaks before someone winds up dead."** She covered her body with the fire aura and continued, **"And I'm going to put you down for good!"** She casted fireballs at him.

The hybrid moved behind the nearest tree to use as a shield against the spells. **"Ah yeah, I'm the killing machine. Not the sadistic psycho bitch trying to kill me unprovoked!"** he shouted.

**"I'm a sadistic psycho, huh? Well what you do is no different when you go into Hunter's Mode. Killing dragons for fun, how disgusting!"** Atlas growled, remembering the stories from Flarina about how hybrids enjoyed their killing sprees. Pretty soon the tree burned down, but then a sudden bright flash of yellow engulfed Akuma and he rushed out from his spot in a lightning fast dash. They were like leaps as he had to pause for each dash. **"Hey! Get back here!"** the magi yelled. Her fire aura disappeared and was replaced by a boosting wind spell that increased her flight speed by having the winds blow behind her hard. She wasn't going to let the hypocrite of a hybrid get away and kill dragons at random. If he wasn't dead, then more people like Flarina and John would die.

**"Yeah sure, except you have a choice. I don't. That makes you the true psycho here! I don't know what you have seen, but I'm not them and blaming me for someone else's shit seems REAL fair!"** the boy shouted as he kept dashing.

**"Sure you say you're different, but how do I know you're innocent? For all I know, you could be lying to save your skin just so you can go back to killing in peace!"** Atlas yelled, distrustful of him. Soon she followed him into the ruins of the city, where the hybrid tripped over a small concrete obstacle on the road. He let himself flop to the ground, groaning in response to the feeling of hitting the ground. He shut his eyes and curled up again. _'Hah, looks like you're mine, half-breed. I'm going to make a popsicle out of you right now!'_ she thought, smiling inwardly. The dragoness was about cast her ice stream spell at Akuma to cocoon his body in ice, but then stony pillar rose above ground and blocked her way. **"What?"** The magi hovered back a bit as she stood frozen in surprise for a few moments.

Then she heard someone yelling, **"You've already been warned once! Your onslaught of the innocent will be tolerated no more!"** And with that the deadly red spheres launched towards Atlas.

**"Ahh!"** the dragoness cried while moving to the side to dodge them. She looked down and saw the human from last night. **"Oh, it's you again. Trying to help the hybrid, huh? Well listen human, if you get in my way. I'll have to take you down, too,"**she warned as balls of fire floated above her paws.

The boy didn't budge but instead rose his own hands up, balls of water forming above his palms. **"I am issuing one final warning to you, dragon. Leave this place or die,"** he warned. The human took a defensive stance, waiting for the dragoness before him to make the first move.

Knowing her fire attacks would do nothing against water, the magi cancelled out her fireballs and replaced them with ice spears.**"I'd rather die than let this killer run loose!"** she yelled. Then she shot down the ice spears towards the boy. She figured that if he was out of the picture, she would get to the hybrid without any problems.

Then a green-maned black hybrid wearing a blue scarf jumped on a wall next to the boy and breathed out magma to melt the spears. **"Hah, try a real hybrid. You've just been nipping at the heels of a weak dud. Kid no less,"** he smirked. **"And I thought my taste in prey was bad."**

A white-haired girl in a red outfit took cover behind a rock wall and said to the boy, **"Should have just jumped to killing the filthy beast in the first place. Obviously the thing is deranged and needs to be put down."** She holstered an arrow and shot it at Atlas's right shoulder. The dragoness let out a pained yowl in response.

The black and white hybrid, who had just moved Akuma to set him against a rebuilt building, moved around the wall and stood next to the others. **"You're outnumbered here. You're making chaos where there is peace. You should leave,"** he told the magi.

Atlas pulled out the arrow and spat it to the ground. **"Oh now you're all in for it! You're going to rue the day you messed with me!"** she yelled. She cast a wind aura spell on herself and then she fired wind blades at the humans and hybrids. She handled ten hybrids before, so four enemies plus that sleeping hybrid should be easy for her.

**"Rue the day? Who even talks like that,"** the girl laughed. **"She really is deranged," **she continued.

A small spotted black dragoness with yellow wings, known as a mirror dragon, lunged forth from the right side of the boy and his allies, flame spilling from her maw to cross before the blades and under them. The fires heated the air the blades were constructed of and slowed their movement drastically, as well as projecting them upwards. Her front claws dug into the ground as she halted her movement, hind hips swinging around so that she faced the large magi dragoness, a snarl ripping from her larynx, accompanied by an underlying drone of a hiss. There was an odd light of mischief in her eyes as the dragoness focused lightly on the earth beneath the magi, partially amplifying the gravity below her.

Fortunately, the wind aura was there to dispel the blades and keep Atlas from getting cut by her own magic. The magi glared down at the dragoness and yelled sarcastically, **"Oh great, a human pet! Isn't that awesome? Now you listen here, midget. You're aiding the wrong side. Those humanoid creatures you're aiding aren't dragons; they're hybrids, monsters created by humans to be dragon-killings. They become even more savage and dangerous the moment they smell blood. So if you want your skin saved, I suggest you leave those scums along and help me kill them."** She didn't want to have to kill this misguided dragoness, because she might have gotten the situation wrong. The blood from her wound and on the arrow would cause the hybrids to go into hunter's mood at any second now, thus having the mirror see the error of her ways. But that didn't happen as the wind aura was keeping them from smelling the blood.

The insult of the mirror dragoness being a midget pierced her honed ears as it drove a bolt of fury into her brain. Jaws parted lightly as she bared serrated teeth at the other draconic figure, the tiniest of drones murmuring from her form. After a moment, though, the static amplified and several lines of electricity jumped from her teeth and up her features, jumping down the line of her spine in a quick series of jumps before fizzling out at her tail. Her talons sparked slightly and her tail lashed, the fans upon her head flaring and extending outwards, spreading with aggression as she hissed. The fact that she would not side with the Magi due to the grudge sown from the seeds of the insult was engraved deeply into her mind. With the exception of the growls trickling through her throat and the electricity still arcing over her form and across her spider-webbed garments, the witty creature was oddly silent.

**"You seem to know something about hybrids. But whatever you've faced before were shams. Jokes. Failed hybrids let go from pure pity. Good for you,"** the black hybrid sniggered.

**"You're the only one making trouble here,"** the other hybrid scolded. **"We were trying to rebuild the city and you just came by trying to kill us. You're the only mindless killer here," **he continued. The hybrids breathed their respective magma and ice breaths at Atlas.

**"Oh so you're the stronger hybrids, huh? Well good for me, because I'll feel really good once you two are gone!"** Atlas yelled with the intent to avenge her sister. Then she responded to the other hybrid, **"At least I'm doing this for a good purpose. Now die!"** Then she cast a wind beam at the magma and ice breaths, blowing the two back with powerful winds.

The hybrid brothers easily moved out of the way of the reflected attack. **"You are an evil being and everyone here can see right through you,"** the black & white hybrid yelled. **"You're the only killer here. Going after some kid. I don't know how you sleep at night,"** he scolded.

Suddenly, a jet of blue flames flew out of nowhere at the magi and died upon hitting the aura. Atlas looked to the side and saw the black dragoness from last night. Apparently, she too was siding with the hybrids as well. **"What?! You too?! What the hell is going on here?! Why would you side with me over these beasts who would kill you at anytime?! Did you not see how ruthless hybrids can be?!"** she yelled while still keeping her wind beam going at the hybrids' breaths. She was sure the black had seen and heard everything about the hybrids during the fight with Ramkot, so why pick the wrong side?

The young woman poked out again, firing three more arrows. The hybrid brothers zipped around at the same time, breathing their breaths on either side of the magi. Having gotten used to fast opponents after fighting hybrids, Atlas was ready for them. She intensified her wind aura and kept the attacks at bay. The green-maned one jumped high with the attempt to slash at her with his claws, but he got blown back to the ground. Pieces of stone broke off from the boy's pillar and formed into three sturdy pikes of stone. **"Dragon, have you not seen how ruthless hybrids can be? Have you not seen how vicious dragons can be? Have you not seen the atrocities committed by countless humans? I could keep going until every race has been listed, would that give me a righteous reason to go, chase down, and slaughter any one of them? You cannot condemn the whole for the deeds of a portion."** The stone pikes rose up and one of them shot forward towards Atlas, while the other two stayed behind, still ready for use. The pike managed to break through the aura and stab Atlas on the wing, causing the dragoness to roar in pain. **"I have fought Albel, a hybrid may I remind you, and he has shown me mercy. Does this sound ruthless to you dragon?"** He launched another pike and stabbed her other wing, sending the magi down to the ground. **"I have been crushed by a building, only to be helped up by Fayt, another hybrid. You are misguided, and you're mind has been poisoned by hatred."** And with that he launched the final pike. Atlas turned to the side to avoid getting struck on the head; she took the hit on the side underneath her wing.

As the magi laid wounded on the ground as she glared back at her enemies as Nicks' words rang again through her mind. He seemed to have a point as she had seen all that has happened last night but... Atlas pulled out the pike out of her chest and spat it on the ground. She said to the boy, **"Okay, so the hybrids have shown kindness towards you. But I bet that's only because they're human like you."**

**"Wrong again, miss. We're more dragon than anything,"** the black and white hybrid corrected. **"Only a small portion is human. So you've been attacking your own kin."** The magi let out an angry growl; how dare he called dragons kin to hybrids after all Flarina suffered at the lab and all the atrocities they've done to dragonkind? **"What's more, you try to blame us for something you do yourself. We were put in test tubes and forced to have a blood attraction. But I and others lead peaceful lives anyway. And then there's you. Complete free will and you still choose to act on your lust for blood. I nor do anyone else have to prove ourselves to the likes of a murderous dragon like you,"** he continued. **"They're helping because they're not stupid enough to blame the actions of one of a whole race. So what about you? Are you stupid enough to do that?"**

Atlas refused to answer "yes" to the question and let out a growl instead, because she knew she'll always hate hybrids and will want them dead. Plus she refused to trust the hybrid's pacifism. Like Akuma, he could have been lying to save his behind. If he wants to prove his innocence, he'll need witnesses. She turned to the two dragonesses and asked, **"What about you two? Have you seen hybrids who have done good deeds for you?"**

The black dragoness leaped down where everyone else was, looking over the hybrids. **"They don't have to do a deed for me just to prove that they're not "bloodthirsty" like you say they are. Sure they can kill without second thoughts, but is it truly their fault for it? It's something they cannot control, something beyond their power to stop."** Her crimson eyes stared straight into the magi's. **"I am not like most dragons, I accept hybrids for who they are, not what they do for it isn't their fault they act on the scent of blood. Even though I've seen what they can do my view for hybrids will not be changed."** Her lips curled into a snarl, a low growl rumbling in the back of her throat. **"I will NOT allow you to kill them, for they did nothing to deserve this cruel punishment. You'll have to fight me as well if you truly want to kill them!" **

Atlas snorted and pulled out the the other two pikes from her wings. **"Fine, if you're all dead set on thinking those things are innocent little creatures, I'll your take words... for now. But know this, half-breeds, if I find out that you're lying about yourselves, there will be no mercy next time. Sure I'll leave the "good" hybrids alone from now on, but any bad ones I find won't be spared. You have been warned!"** she snarled at everyone. Then she teleported out of the ruined city and vanished from sight.

* * *

Author's Note: I couldn't figure out how to edit Astyn the mirror dragon's part to remove her thoughts and feelings, so I just left it like that.

Atlas, Kathia, Danielle, and Kylie (c) me  
Nick (c) Picknick10  
Fayt, Akuma, Albel, and Rika (c) Eveeoni (a.k.a. Sai on the Dragon Cave forums)  
Darkness (c) DarknessDragon197  
Astyn (c) White Wolf of the Snow (a.k.a. WWotS on Deviant Art)


	6. No More Lab

**Chapter 5:** **No More Lab**

After his nap, Aeolus woke up and blinked the sleep out of his red eyes. Then he got up and left the cave. He saw Rina here in the village. **"Oh Rina, so I see you've come back home to pay your respects to your clan or perhaps for a different, yet similar matter,"** he said. Somehow he wasn't surprised to see her here, but it makes sense since this was her clan's home.

Rina turned her head to him and replied, **"I've already paid my respects to the dead. And usually we burn the bodies instead of burying them, but still, thank you for your help."**

**"It was the least I could do,"** said the dragon. Then he asked, **"So what brings you here?"**

She answered, **"I came here to visit my chieftain's cave. I suspect that there are more survivors of this disaster."  
**  
Aeolus asked, **"You really think there might be?"** Perhaps it was possible that they might have fled to save themselves from death.

**"No,"** replied Rina, turning and taking a path to the chieftain's clan, but not before she stopped after a few steps. **"To be honest, that day I was deep in sorrow and rage, and my mind was clouded with a desire to avenge the dead. But after I put the Curse on that human, I remembered that I didn't see El-Naise at all. And I think that perhaps she left behind at least a hint about the survivors."** The dark-blue dragoness sighed, looked at the cave the disaster dragon emerged from, and added, **"By the way, the cave you took a rest in belonged to our clan medic. You can take anything you want from there, and I do recommend to do so, just in case."** She continued to the chieftain's cave.

**"Well thank you, Rina. I'm pretty sure that whatever's inside would help me in on my journey to the woodlands,"**Aeolus replied gratefully. The dragon went inside the clan medic's cave and looked around for helpful items. He noticed some medical herbs off to the side as well as a few magic crystals. These supplies would be helpful in case he got hurt, sick, or drained of energy. Aeolus took up the items and left the cave. He went up to Rina and asked, **"So what will you do now, Rina?"**

The wind dragoness stopped in her tracks and turned around to look at Aeolus. She paused for a short while before she replied,**"When I'll check the cave... I have no idea. For my whole life I was unable to travel anywhere, as the others needed me here. Maybe I'll go travelling to find a new purpose for myself..."** She looked to the side and finished, **"Or one day, if El-Naise and some others are still alive, we'll try to rebuild our clan... but much later, after everything settles down."**

**"Very well, take care, Rina. Maybe one day we'll cross paths again. Good luck finding El-Naise and the others,"** Aeolus said before he left the Eternal Wind village. He took off into the air and flew over the desert land. It was going to be a long trip to the woodlands and it might even take days to get there, if it was too far away. But with the supplies he had to help him, his journey would easy until he ran out of them.

* * *

Atlas was far away from the city in the forest, where she was now licking the wounds where the pikes had stabbed her. She couldn't go back to the spring cave looking like this; that would make her nieces worried. **"Stupid bleeding heart fools! They better know what they're doing,"** she growled to herself. When she tried to move her wing, a sharp pain was felt and she folded her wing still to not hurt it any further. **"Damn it, it's going to be a while before I started moving again. Maybe I should go back to the spring cave,"** she said, changing her mind. She licked her wounds to disinfect and soothe them.

A white female dragonet came out from the corner of a tree after tracking the scent of blood she smelled. **"Oh my, are you alright?"** she asked after noticing the wounds.

Without looking at her, the magi replied bitterly, **"No!"** She didn't mean to sound curt, but she was upset about having to come out hurting after surrendering and making a promise that she might regret later.

**"Well, sorry for upsetting you, miss,"** the dragonet apologized as she was taken aback. **"I was just worried, because I smelled blood and came here to check."** Then she asked, **"What happened to you, anyway?"**

**"Hybrids..."** Atlas answered with a growl. **"Hybrids, humans, and a couple of ignorant dragons! They have no idea what's going to happen to them if they continue to let those monsters loose!"** she snarled, thinking of the lab and its fate.

**"Hybrids?" **The dragonet quivered with fear at the sound of the name. **"You mean those dr-dragon killers?"** she asked.

**"Yes, I mean them!"** the dragoness answered. **"If I were you, I'd stay away from the human city, because that's where I saw those furball bastards!"** she warned for the sake of the white's safety.

The dragonet nodded slightly and replied, **"O-okay, I will."** Then she looked at the wounds and felt a obligation to help the magi out. **"So can I heal your injuries? I'm a white dragon,"** she asked.

Atlas looked to the winged hatchling and noticed her ivory pelt color. The timing couldn't have been more perfect; white dragons were known for the best healing magic of all the dragons breeds around the world. Their only flaw though, was that they couldn't bring back the dead. **"Well that's good,"** Atlas gladly said. She stood up and showed the dragonet where got stabbed.**"I need you to use your magic here... there... and here,"** she said pointing her head to each spot.

**"Alright, I'll get to it."** After Atlas sat back down, the dragonet went to the left wing hovered her paws over the area. She channeled her healing magic to her paws until they glowed in a soothing light blue aura. Then she let the energy flow from her paws to the wound and closed it with reformed flesh until the wing looked brand new again. She did the same thing to the other wing and the side.

Now that she was no longer in pain, Atlas stretched her wings in relief and joy at being able to move again. **"Thanks kid, I owe you one!"** she said.

The dragonet smiled and modestly said, **"Oh it was nothing. I would have done the same for anyone, really."**

**"Well, aren't you a good kid,"** the magi said, smiling at her. **"It must be nice being able to help out everyone you meet."**

**"Well yeah, it is,"** the dragonet replied, recalling everyone who thanked her.

**"Well I got to be going now,"** the dragoness said as she got up again. **"I got some things that need to be taken care of."**

**"Okay, be careful not to get hurt next time,"** the white told her.

**"I promise,"** Atlas said before she walked away from her. The dragoness's mind ponder her thoughts on what to do next. She thought about her nieces' well-being in these woods, knowing the hybrids were free to roam about. She could keep them at the spring cave for a long time until they were grown up, but the magi felt they needed to play outside and that keeping them sheltered for safety that long wasn't a good idea. She thought about moving far away from this country to keep Danielle and Kylie safe. But the new place she was moving to had to be a place best suited for their breeds.

Magis were capable of living almost anywhere, but from what she knew of whiptails, they only adapted well to forests. She knew that after her early life in the Solomese desert where both her half-whiptail father got hot too often. He did used to live in the woods until he met their red mother and decided to go live with her. But the question of where balloon dragons thrived was a mystery to Atlas. Flarina had met John out in the woods after he got bought out of slavery by a friendly human being. But for all she knew, he might have been exported out of his original habitat. She wondered if her fellow slaves knew about balloon dragons.

Atlas formed a telepathic bond with all her friends and asked, _'Hey guys, got a minute? This is Atlas and I want to ask you guys about balloon dragons.'_

The replies she got were _'Sure, what is it?' 'Ask away!' 'I'll tell you anything you want.'_

Snively, who was also taking part in this conversation, asked, _'What do you need to know about balloon dragons?'_

The magi asked, _'Okay here's the story, my sister Flarina and her mate got killed by a bunch of hybrids.'_

The moment she said that word, a bunch of replies came like this: _'Hybrids?!' 'Oh no...' 'I'm sorry for your sister, Atlas.' 'Aren't those the dragon-killing monsters?'_

_'Yes, they are. And thanks for your sympathy, guys. So anyway, I killed those hybrids and got left with my two nieces to take care of, but then after I burned down the lab or rather the inside of it, I found another hybrid. I tried chasing it down to kill him, but then I ran into two more hybrids and a few humans and dragonesses who tried to defend them,'_ Atlas continued.

Everybody wasn't surprised at the humans helping hybrids part, but dragonesses were a shock. _'What?! Why on earth would they help them? I mean they're dragon-killers for crying out loud!'_ asked Snively.

_'Because apparently, the hybrids to them are "innocent", trying to live peaceful lives or so they claim while I'm the "bad guy" for trying to get rid of the problem,'_ answered Atlas and snorted. _'So I decided to let them go for now so that they can learn their lesson on why hybrids shouldn't be around. Though it will probably be too late when those half-breeds go into hunter's mode.'_

_'Are you sure you should be leaving those things alive?' _asked a dragon, who didn't like this decision. _'I mean it's better to end them quickly before someone gets hurt, no matter what anyone says.'_

Most of the other dragons agreed, except for two who weren't so quick to judge on species. _'I... don't know if you should be so quick to judge all hybrids based on what they're created for. I mean if they did say they were peaceful and those two dragonesses were trying to protect them from you making a wrongful kill, doesn't that mean the hybrids may be good?'_ asked another dragon.

_'Oh gods, not you too,'_ Atlas mentally groaned.

_'Well he's got a point, Atlas. We shouldn't be so quick to judge them until they do something bad. That would be like trying to kill that human who freed your brother-in-law just for the fact that he's... well... human,'_ said a dragoness.

_'Well if doesn't matter if they're good or not. I just can't let my nieces play around outside while those half-breeds are running amok. You all know they go berserk at the smell of blood and I don't want Danielle and Kylie around them while they're in hunter's mode. That's why I decided to move out of this country and go somewhere safe. So now on the question; does anybody know where balloon dragons live?'_ she asked.

_'I do!'_ Snively answered. _'They live in woodlands where they can get all the fresh fruit they want.'_

_'Thanks, Snively,' replied Atlas. 'So does anyone know of any countries in Rudvich that has forests?'_ She would have gone to Solomos's forests, but she never seen them before. So teleporting there was out of question.

_'My ancestor lived in the northwest region. It's a nation full of trees, Atlas.'_

_'Well good, now I can make the journey there. Thanks guys, you've been a wonderful help,'_ the magi said gratefully. Then telepathy was disconnected. Now that she had her destination in mind, Atlas decided to do one last thing before she took her nieces and fly off; get some explosive fuel and burn down the exterior of the lab.

Atlas took off into the air and went back into the city. She didn't care if she ran into those hybrid-friends, she wanted to come here to get what she was looking for. The magi flew over ruins noticing that humans were trying to rebuild their broken city. It wasn't any of her concern, because now that the humans were robbed of their advanced weaponry, they were powerless to fight a dragon. Of course, there was still a small problem with medieval weaponry, but they weren't as difficult to fight against the modern weapons. So Atlas, being a very strong dragon, would have no problem fighting against those weapons. But human mages on the other hand may be a challenge. It looks like the humans had recently discovered magic and if so, they would used that power to go back to enslaving and hunting dragons. _'I guess we better come up with a Spell that can disable the humans' magic as well,'_ she thought, concerned. Maybe Aeolus would come up with a plan for that. She'll have to ask him later, though.

When the humans saw a magi flying in the sky, they screamed and ran away to go hide. Atlas didn't bother with them; she was glad to have the humans fear her and let them know not to mess with her. The dragoness saw a gas station that looked very much destroyed by an explosion. _'Well damn, I guess I better check another place,'_ she thought. Then after a minute later, she found another gas station that was this time wrecked instead of exploded. Maybe there was gasoline there. Atlas landed at where the fuel tanks were and used her ice stream magic to form a shape of a large bucket and solidify it. She took out one of the pumps and pulled the trigger to pour fuel into the bucket.

After the ice bucket was full, Atlas carried it off out of the city and flew over on her way to the lab. There she was going to look to see the condition of the lab after she set fire inside. Had it burned down to the point where the flames were now outside? Was the lab completely burned down? Or was it still burning inside? The dragoness couldn't wait to get there to see how it fared.

She got her answer when she saw the lab was still on fire. The flames had now reached the outside of the thick stony shell. Atlas flew high above the blazing buildings and poured 2 quarters of gasoline on each section of the building. Explosions boomed and damaged the lab even further, breaking chunks of the building and reducing them to ash and rubble. The magi landed on the ground and used her ice stream magic to carry the rest of the gasoline to the base of the lab and bomb the floor. Now with the lab near to its complete destruction, Atlas retreated back to the city to fetch more gasoline.

After returning to the gas station, the magi dragoness refilled the bucket once more. She had thought she was going to get out of the city no trouble what-so-ever, but it didn't take long for the humans to see what she was doing. **"Oh jeez, it's a dragon!"** cried a man.

**"What's it doing at the gas station?"** asked a frightened woman.

**"It looks like it's taking the fuel for free,"** said an angry man. **"Hey beast, the gas station isn't yours for the taking. Scram! Shoot! Get out of here before we-"** Atlas didn't give a crap what the humans thought of her theft, so she glared at them and let out a loud scary roar.

The people backed away in fear as Atlas yelled, **"Shut up, you hairless apes! You shouldn't be talking now that your guns and tanks don't work anymore! But if you're going to keep threatening me, be prepared for a bruising, monkey!"**

A human mage entered the scene and asked, **"What seems to be going on here?"**

One of the men pointed to Atlas and answered, **"That dragon's trying to get away with the gas she stole from the fuel tanks. She has to be stopped!"**

**"Don't worry, I'll take care of this beast!"** the mage said before he cast his spells at the dragoness. Atlas shielded herself and the bucket with her wings and got hit on the pike wound. She winced and gritted her teeth in pain before becoming enraged at the offense and countered with a light laser shot at the mage, who got blasted back. Gasps filled the air as humans looked in shock and worry for the wounded man that tried to stand against Atlas. The dragoness ran over to the mage and tore his head off with her teeth. The spinal cord came out with the head as well and she spat them to the side. She dropped the headless, devastated body on the ground for all the humans to see.

**"Let this be a lesson for you, worms! Mess with me or any other dragon and this is how you will look when you wind up dead,"** Atlas warned, snarling at them. The humans panicked and ran away screaming. Now that the commotion was over, Atlas took up the ice bucket and flew back to the lab where she used her ice stream spell to the gasoline around the different parts of the lab and caused it to bomb down completely demolished for good.

Now all that was left was to put out the fire before it spread throughout the forest. Atlas used her ice magic to put out all the fires until now a tiny little ember was left remaining. **"Okay, my work here is done. All I need to do is rest and then I'll go on back home,"** she said, feeling glad about her accomplishment. She left the lab remains and laid down with her wings folded and her tail curled around her body.

* * *

**Author's Note:** I don't know a better title for this than "No More Lab".

Atlas, Aeolus, Flarina, Danielle, and Kylie (c) me  
Rina (c) UberCatSR (a.k.a. TheTron852)


	7. First Taste of Blood

**Chapter 6: First Taste of Blood**

After regaining energy for flight, Atlas stood up and spread her wings. She took off into the air and flew back to the spring cave. The sisters, who had been playing in the hot spring, saw their aunt return home. **"Aunt Atlas, you're back!"** said Kylie.

Danielle ran up to her and asked, **"Did you kill the hybrids?"**

Atlas shook her head and answered, **"No I didn't, some idiots want to keep them alive."**

**"Oh no!"** both sisters whimpered scared.

**"Why would they do that?"** asked Kylie, not understanding why on earth would anyone protect these monsters.

**"Because they're stupid and don't know what they're bringing on to themselves."** the magi answered, growling.**"Anyway, we have to leave this cave to go to a new home. Climb aboard, kids!"** She laid down to let the hatchlings climb up her tail and get onto her back. Then the magi left the cave and took off over the woods.

**"Now before we leave the Northeast region for good, we're going to go to your parents' graves and pay our respects one last time,"** Atlas told her nieces. The magi flew down into the part of the woods where John and Flarina were killed and landed right by the mounds of earth that held the deceased dragons beneath. The family said their goodbyes and wished them a happy afterlife before they went back into the air.

Danielle had one question, **"Aunt Atlas, what is the Northwest like?"**

The magi replied, **"I don't know, Danielle. But when we get there, we'll know."**

* * *

Kathia was now going into the city ruins. Earlier, she had heard in camp that humans were going into the city to reclaim their possession and try to rebuild the city. The girl walked all the way back to her mansion, hoping to retrieve the sword that had been passed down from generations to generations. With it, she could use it to get her revenge on the dragons and slay them all. It a long time to walk there and eventually she reached her burned down home. Kathia rummaged through the ashes and debris hoping to find what she was looking for. Eventually, she found it. The redhead smiled sadistically and murmured to herself,**"Hee hee hee! With this weapon I have, I will slay every last lizard in this world and make them all pay!"** Of course she didn't know how to swing a sword yet, but at least she could practice her killing moves on her first victims; hatchlings and pygmies.

The first step to becoming a dragon-slayer was complete; now what she needed next were a shield and some magic spells to learn. She saw a few mages past by and was initially surprised to see humans using magic; something that was strange and unheard of. But it was a good thing to see, because that would mean more power to kill the damned beasts. Kathia rummaged through the ruins once more and picked up her family shield. Then she left the place and went to one of the mages hoping to learn some attack spells. **"Excuse me, sir. I'm looking to learn how to use magic. Can you teach me after you're done?"**she asked.

The mage declined and said, **"Sorry kid, I'm a man who's busy all the time. Why don't you find somebody else?"**

The girl felt a bit disappointed and walked away from him. She tried asking the other mages, but none of them were willing to help her. Kathia got mad and gave up trying to learn from them. **"****Fine! Maybe I'll find some way to teach myself!"** she huffed. Yes, that was definitely what she was going to do, if those stupid mages won't teach her. Maybe she could find spells on the internet or in a book later, if there are any spellbooks that is. For now, the girl went to the forest to look for pygmies and hatchlings to kill.

The redhead wandered through the woods looking everywhere for her first victim. It took her like 18 minutes until she found a yellow pygmy eating a squirrel he caught. Smiling sadistically, the girl walked up behind the pygmy with her sword ready to kill and her shield ready to defend against its attacks. As she got closer to him, the tiny dragon felt her presence and looked back to the hunter about to attack him. He jumped back out of the blade's path and spat a fireball at her, which she blocked with her shield. She lowered her shield and then quickly raised it back up when the pygmy tried to jump at her. Kathia tried to shake him off, but the dragon got to her face and started scratching her. **"Eeek! Get off! Get off!"** she screamed. She blindly staggered around, dropping her two equipment, as the dragon kept biting and clawing at her. After half a minute of struggling, the girl grabbed the creature by his wings and took out her dagger. The pygmy spat and snarled as he thrashed at the air in front of the hunter. Kathia laid him on the ground as she took out her dagger and stabbed him right where it kills. The dragon's eyes closed and his body became limp and cold. Kathia had made her first kill.

The girl picked up the dead pygmy, grinning evilly at her victim and said, **"I am going to turn you into a brand new purse later!"** She carried the pygmy off with her to go look for others to kill. The girl trekked through the woods until she found a clan of dragons in sight with some hatchlings. Not being ready for this many dragons yet, Kathia retreated and continued to look for easier targets. This time she saw a winged hatchling that was flying a bit low above ground. The hunter hid behind a tree before she jumped him and pushed him down against the ground. The hatchling struggled to get her off, but Kathia raised her sword and sank the blade down from the back and into his heart. Another life was taken in cold blood.

She left her second victim on the ground as he was too a bit too heavy her to carry around. The redhead went to look for some more dragons to slay and found a sleeping black dragoness. Although she wasn't experienced enough to take on a dragon that size, the dragoness being asleep would leave her very vulnerable to unsuspecting attacks. Kathia laid the pygmy on the ground and walked quietly over to the dragoness. She raised the blade above the head and tried to stab her through the skull. Unfortunately, the dragoness woke up to the human scent and her body shifted slightly as she opened her eyes. She could react to the oncoming attack. When she tried to move her head out of the way, the sword met its mark as it sliced the side of her neck. Blood flowed out of the wound and stained the grass a dark crimson. The black dragoness screeched in pain, her eyes locking onto the enemy with a furious glare.

Kathia now regretted her attempt at assassination. Her heart raced with fear and her stomach churned as she slowly backed away from the dragoness. **"Oh God, no!"** she murmured. Then she turned and ran away for her life. She did not want to die before she got to learn how to use magic to fight dragons with. With a roar, the dragoness thundered after her, racing through the forest to catch up with the girl. Kathia never looked back, but she could feel the presence of the dragoness behind her. She wanted to run faster and leave the beast behind, but this was as fast as her legs could carry her. Suddenly, the black beast made one swift jump and landed in front of her, blocking the girl's route to escape as her tail lashed from side to side in aggravation. Kathia let out a frightened scream as she was now face to face with the black dragoness. The creature's wound on her side was worse, blood drained from it at a quicker rate than before creating a small crimson pools at her claws. The dragoness stepped closer to her a low growl rumbled in her throat. Seeing as she couldn't outrun the creature, Kathia had no choice but to fight for her life if she was going to escape death. Holding onto both her sword and shield, the hunter pointed her blade at the dragoness and threatened nervously, **"Back, beast! D-d-don't make me have to kill you."**

Stopping in mid-step the black dragoness froze, her gaze shifting from the blade in front of her to the human's eyes. Taking one step closer, the dragoness faced the girl, wincing at the throbbing pain in her side. **"Why would you try to kill me?"** she challenged, her crimson eyes narrowing at the human.

**"B-because..."** Kathia answered nervously. While trying to find words to answer this question, the hunter recalled her reason for becoming a dragon slayer and how she felt pleasure in killing two dragons. Her fear turned into hate and her eyebrows furrowed as she answered maniacally, **"Because I like kill to dragons!"** She swung her sword at the dragoness and again for another hit. If she can accomplish killing a full-grown dragon with just a sword, she can take on a whole world of them. She would then tell people how she slew a dragon like a knight did in story books and then give rise to an army that would reclaim their slaves and take revenge against them.

The creature's eyes widened in surprise as she tried to evade the attack, but her timing was slow. Her pained roar rang out as the sword sliced across her shoulder. Blood trickled down her night-black scales, coloring the grass a thick, dark red. Stepping back, the dragoness hissed. Her mouth unleashed searing hot jets of blue flames at the hunter before her, her eyes blazing with fury. The first few inches of flames managed to get onto Kathia as she raised her shield to block the rest of the fiery breath. The teen girl screamed in pain from the blue fires searing her skin and clothes. She dropped her sword and slapped down the flames. Her hands burned whenever she tried to put out the fire, but it was better to save herself than continue burning. When she was no longer burning, Kathia took up her sword again and tried to run around the dragoness. She went to try and stab the dragon's side.

The dragoness stood on her hind haunches and leaped back to avoid the swords damaging blow. She landed slightly unbalanced, due to her new shoulder wound that continued to throb and bleed. In a self defense attempt, the black surrounded herself with a fiery vortex, keeping close attacks from doing any damage. She watched the hunter closely, her eyes never leaving her. The girl backed away slowly keeping her eyes on the winged reptile and tried to figure out her next plan of action. She could throw her sword at the dragoness, but that would be losing her one and only weapon. She circled around the dragon to look for an opening, but the fire wall had turned out to be a protective circle of flames to keep the hunter from coming in close to attack._'Damn it, now what am I going to do? I can't get in close and I can't throw anything at her. What am I suppose to do, stand watch here all day, waiting for her to kill me?'_ she thought, not liking and wanting to go through with the last 'suggestion'. For now, she would just keep her shield up and wait for an opening to attack.

Taking this time while the hunter was held at bay, the dragoness inspected her wounds, most were deep and would most likely leave a scar. Her gaze fell off the human when she twisted her neck around to lick her side wound, wincing in pain as she cleansed the open gash. Taking advantage of the monster's distraction, Kathia backed away until she turned tail and ran. Maybe now that she's inflicted some damage on the dragoness, the monster would be slowed down by its wounds and allow the hunter an easier escape back to the city. Or better yet, camp would be where she needed to go to get her burns healed since there were doctors, nurses, and other medics to heal the survivors of dragon fire. Kathia's arms, hands, and upper part of the torso hurt as she ran. Maybe her own wounds might slow her down too, and if that dragoness caught up to her, she could always fight again.

After running far for what seemed like a while, Kathia's throat and chest felt lump with exhaustion. She stopped and panted to catch her breath. The girl looked behind to see if the dragoness she tried to kill was chasing her. There was not a silhouette of the big black beast anywhere in sight. Feeling relieved, Kathia decided to take five for a short while before she would continue on back to camp. She couldn't stay for long though or the dragoness will come back to attack her. After a good three minutes, the black dragoness came out of hiding and slowly padded up to the girl. **"Eek!"** Kathia screamed in alert. Taking up her sword and shield, the hunter yelled, **"Damn dragon!"** Then she went to the dragoness and thrust her sword at her before she backed away in case the beast tried to surround herself in flames again. This time, Kathia was staying here to fight for good until one of them ends up dead. And if she was lucky, the dragoness would probably retreat after taking much damage.

The black hissed and side-stepped away from the huntress before the sword could make contact to her hide. With a leap she ascended to the sky, hovering in spot for a while before attacking. With a strong stroke of her wings she raced towards the human, jaws opening again as she shot out bursts of blue flames at her opponent, scorching anything in its path. Kathia raised her shield over herself and blocked the burning attack. No way was she getting set on fire again after being burned. She held on against the flames until it over. And when that happened, the huntress would go in for another strike against the dragoness.

Seeing that the fire had no effect, the dragoness roared and glared at the girl below her. In a swift motion she launched herself at the hunter, her claws ready to tear into the girl's flesh as she raced towards her at a high speed. As soon as Kathia let her shield down to see what the beast was up to next, she got clawed deeply down from the chest and onto the side of her abdomen. **"Ouch!"** she yelped as blood started oozing out. Kathia clutched her wounds as she winced and glared at the dragoness. She retaliated with another swing of the sword at the underbelly. The blade ripped deep and long, making the blood flow out at a rapid pace.

The creature crash-landed on her side; her wings somewhat torn from the ungraceful landing. The black dragoness breathed heavily as she was losing blood rather fast, unable to move for she could make matters much worse by straining herself. Her eyes locked onto the girl's; the crimson orbs filled with sorrow before she closed them and waiting for the human to strike. Kathia held herself in pain for a few seconds before she walked over to her unconscious foe. With her blade raised up, she made one final thrust at the side in an attempt to end the beast for good. **"Hiyah!"** she yelled. The blade sunk in and she let it sit there for a few seconds before she pulled it out and walked away from the dying dragoness. She looked back for a while to make sure the beast didn't get up to pursue her again. The dragoness made no movement or attempt to get back up again; she eventually disappeared from sight after the girl moved farther away. Kathia turned around and looked at the path ahead of herself. She clutched her claw wound to stop the bleeding and gritted her teeth in pain. But nonetheless, her mind was filled with pride at the aftermath of the heated battle. _'I can't believe I did it. I put down a dragon bigger than me,'_ she thought. It was a scary fight, but if Kathia can win against a large creature, she can take on any dragon in the world. But of course, she'll need to learn magic to make her next hunts easier. Once she gets treated and healed, magic will be her next step in becoming a dragon-slayer.

The teen finally made it back to camp, where a few people saw her bleeding with burns on her body. **"Oh my god, what happened?!"** asked a shocked woman.

**"Dragon attack... I tried to fight her off and she did this to me,"** Kathia answered before she groaned in pain as the wound stung her.

**"Somebody get her to the medics, quick!"** shouted a man. One of the men helped Kathia over to the hospital tent, where she was laid on the bed. The nurses put medicine on her burns and wrapped her wounds with bandages to stop the blood loss.

* * *

**Author's Note:** We've just witnessed Kathia's first step in becoming one of the major villains in the RP; the other being Aeolus, Jason, and Spinx. We'll see the latter two later in future chapters.


	8. The Quest for Home

**Chapter 7: The Quest for Home**

Aeolus was now farther into the desert. He laid down beside the small lake and drank water to quench his thirst and cool his body down a bit. The dragon rested in the water for a while until his body had enough energy to resume his journey. Aeolus got out of the lake and took off into the air to resume his journey. Hours later, he saw a forest on the horizon of the grassy plains and flew eagerly towards the woodlands over a clan of running whiptail dragons. He reached his destination and landed in the clearing between the trees. He had now found his homeland, but the only thing need to do left before he could truly start his peaceful life as a free dragon was find a home somewhere.

* * *

Kathia finally made it back to camp, where a few people saw her bleeding with burns on her body. **"Oh my god, what happened?!"** asked a shocked woman.

**"Dragon attack... I tried to fight her off and she did this to me,"** Kathia answered before she groaned in pain as the wound stung her.

**"Somebody get her to the medics, quick!"** shouted a man. One of the men helped Kathia over to the hospital tent, where she was laid on the bed. The nurses put medicine on her burns and wrapped her wounds with bandages to stop the blood loss.

* * *

As soon as the huntress was out of sight, the black dragoness managed to stand on her feet, her body was shaking violently from losing blood. With one unbalanced step she collapsed back onto the ground, her body too weak and mangled to move. The sight of her was awful. Dirt and blood was smeared across her black scales and most of her hide was torn from the girl's sword. She closed her eyes once more and prayed for someone to save her from this agonizing state. With a final attempt of someone helping her, Darkness reached out with telepathy to anyone that would be willing to help her, hoping that someone hears her plea.

* * *

The Firestars had traveled for like a good 25 minutes after they left the graves. They stopped next to a river to drink and take a short rest. That was when they heard a distress call in their minds; it was the black dragoness from before and it sounded like she was badly hurt. As Atlas thought about whether to help the dragoness or not, she remembered how the black helped her against Ramkot's gang and how she went against her to help the hybrids. She was quite thankful for having her niece's lives saved, but she was still upset at the fact that she allowed the other hybrids to live. Despite the latter, Atlas believed the black was a good dragoness who may have been misguided about the hybrids. So the magi came to a decision to help and replied,_'Hang on, I'll be there.'_

Getting up, she looked down at her nieces, who had stopped drinking when they heard the distress call. **"Aunt Atlas, we have ta go help da dwagon in twouble,"** said Danielle, concerned and wanting to do the right thing. Kylie nodded in agreement with her sister.

**"I know, and that's what we're going to do. Come on, we have a life to save,"** the magi replied. Her nieces climbed onto her back and the aunt walked through the woods until she heard a song that sounded like 'lalala' and hums. The trio approached some more until they saw a purple halfling-like figure with purple skin, blackish-purple horns, a black tail, purple wings, violet hair, dragon feet, and she smelled of dragons, too. **"Hybrid,"** Atlas growled under her breath. Setting her nieces on the tree branches for safety and hidden under the leaves, she told them, **"Stay here."** Then she walked towards the hybrid. She saw green glow around the hybrid's hands over the the black dragoness's wounds, but failing to noticed that she was being healed. She would have impulsively gone to attack the girl, remembering her vow to her enemies at the city, she decided to interrogate the hybrid for answers on as to what happened before she could have an excuse to go in and attack. Once near the two, Atlas growled, **"Alright, what happened?! Why is she hurt and bleeding to death? Did you do this, half-breed?!"**

The girl turned to see the magi and cocked her eyebrow. **"Would seem a bit counter-productive to attack and then heal someone, wouldn't it?"** she asked, rolling her eyes and before she went back to healing.

The magi growled, **"Not if you went into hunter's mode in the first place."** That was probably what happened; the hybrid went berserk and then attacked the dragoness. Maybe then the black would listen to the magi about hybrids being dangerous.

The hybrid laughed and shrugged as she said, **"Don't mean to bust your bubble, but I'm quite harmless even in my hunter mode. I have a bit too much white dragon in me, see."**

"But that doesn't mean that whites aren't capable of fighting back, stupid!"

Atlas countered. It was true that white dragons were pacifists by nature, but if they were driven into a corner, they would use their strength to fight back. **"And about you, being a white dragon. Yeah right!"** the magi yelled, not falling for the obvious lie. **"If you had a lot of white genes in you; you'd be white, not purple! I still you're behind this, you uncontrollable freak!"**

**"But I didn't do this to her!"** the hybrid cried defensively. **"She was like that when I got here!"**

**"Really now, huh? Let me here what this dragoness here has to say before I take your claim true,"** said the magi, not believing the hybrid. Then she looked to the other dragoness and asked, **"Hey you, what happened here and how did you wind up injured and all that?"**

After all her wounds were healed, the black dragoness walked over to Atlas and stopped just a few feet away. She told her story, **"I was in a quarrel with a huntress for she attacked me out of cold blood while I was resting. Seeing fit I chased after her hoping to injure her enough to leave me be, but the tables turned and she had the advantage with her sword leaving me in a devastating state. Knowing that I was close to fainting if not death, I called out for anyone who could help."** Her tail flicked towards the purple hybrid. **"She had nothing to do with my accident as previously stated, she came here because of my plea just like you did."**

**"So the humans have resorted to weapons from their stories. This is unbelievable!"** the magi mumbled to herself. Then looking at the purple hybrid, Atlas figured that she might have been right about not being able to attack in hunter's mode. If she could, the black dragoness would have been dead by now. **"Alright, I believe your story. But why those damned scientists made you without a hunter's mode, puzzles me,"** said the magi.

The girl shook her head. **"Ah no, I have one. I'm just one of the 'duds' running around. My killer genes were a flop. Which I guess is a good thing by anyone else's standards,"** she said, looking around.

Before Atlas could say anything, a familiar and hostile voice sorted, **"Oh look, the sadistic psycho bitch. Shouldn't you be spitting on puppies?"**

Atlas turned her head around to glare at Akuma, who had came into the picture with a mouse on his human head. She growled at the hybrid and said, **"Shut up, half-breed! Go play with your damn rat pet or something!"  
**  
Akuma smirked at the rat comment. He slowly started to chuckle until he burst out laughing. **"Hear that? You're my pet rat,"**he said smugly to the small animal. Atlas was puzzled by the hybrid's jeer at the rodent and wondered what was the meaning of this. Apparently, it seems like hybrids don't have respect for animals either.

The mouse narrowed its glaring eyes and stood up straight on its hind legs. **"Who you calling a Rat you psychotic monster!"**Continuing to stare down the dragoness it leaned forward, using one of Akuma's horns for support as it did so. **"Why don't you leave before I have to hurt you again?"** the mouse threatened.

Atlas was surprised to hear the rodent talk. Its voice sounded quite familiar too. **"Oh let me guess, you're that human boy from the broken down city, aren't you? If you want a fight, I'll be happy to deal with you!"** she growled as her body became ignited with fire aura.

Back at the tree, the nieces watched their aunt afar and Kylie whispered, **"What's going on?"**

Danielle replied back in a whisper, **"I dun know, but I think Aunt Atlas is going to have a fight."**

Before any move was made, the black dragoness stepped between them and roared, **"Enough! Now is not the time to settle differences."** She looked at the blazing magi. **"If you are done investigating the situation then I suggest you leave. I thank you for coming to my assistance but another fight should not break out so soon, settle your differences another time. I'm sure the two of you have other important things to do than fight each other anyway."**

Atlas's fire aura disappeared and she grunted, **"Right. I wouldn't want to waste my time here with a puny little pipsqueak rat human. I got things to take care of."** She walked away from everyone and went back to the tree where her nieces were. **  
**  
The boy-mouse stuck his tongue out at the leaving magi and called out after her, **"Come back when you learn more than a few kiddy spells! Maybe I can show you what real magic looks like then."  
**  
Atlas growled at the mouse's taunt and thought, _'Don't tempt me, chimpanzee. If you want me stronger than ever, you're going to regret what you have just said.'_ Boy, would she loved to do things to the little brat such as stomp him into a pancake, burn him to ashes, or eat him up like prey. Once she gets to the Northwest region, she would take the opportunity to learn a lot of magic spells that she never got to learn as a slave. Then after Danielle and Kylie grow up and become independent, she would return to the Northeast and beat the human at his own game of magic. Yeah, that would show him!She made it back to the tree. **"Come on, girls, let's go,"** she said as the hatchlings jumped onto her back. The magi walked off through the woods and resumed her journey for the Northwest region. Then she sent a telepathic message to all the dragon slaves she knew in her life and said, _'Hey guys, I just learned that magic isn't the only weapon the humans have resorted to. They're also using swords and probably some other medieval weapons to kill dragons as well. If you see one of them attacking you with those, get ready to fight for your life.'_ As soon as her warning was over, dragons started spreading word via telepathy to tell their friends and brethren to be on guard around such humans.

Snively, who was badly disappointed, moaned, _'Oh... And here I thought we were going to live in peace for the rest of our lives. Now those humans are trying to kill us again.'_

_'I know how you feel, pal. One of their wizards attacked me and a hunter nearly killed a black dragoness. It looks like even without their tech, those scums won't give up dragon-hunting anytime soon,' _said Atlas.

* * *

Aeolus had found a bunch of dragons that were building up a village specifically for their own kind. They were digging holes in the ground to form caves and tunnels. Trees were melded together with hardened mud and dirt to form entrances and covers over the holes leading to the tunnels. The green dragon approached the villagers and some of them turned their heads to see the newcomer. **"Aeolus?"** asked a familiar royal blue dragon in surprise.

**"Hello Bam, it has been a long time, hasn't it?"** said the disaster dragon, who was glad to see to see his distant cousin was still alive.

**"Yeah, we haven't like seen each other in so long. I always wondered what you looked like now,"** said Bam. **"And now here you are, a grown handsome fellow,"** he said, eyeing his cousin's appearance.

Aeolus chuckled and said, **"And I can say the same thing about you."  
**  
The blue dragon felt complemented and replied, **"Gee thanks!"**

The disaster dragon looked at his surroundings and said, **"I see we're rebuilding our civilization already. This is a good thing if we want to defend ourselves from the humans and their new weapons."** Aeolus had caught word of the news after Atlas told him and several others spread the news all over the world.

Bam nodded and said, **"Yeah, totally. Plus we're going to need to set some traps too, so that the humans don't get us."**

**"How so?"** asked the disaster.

The royal blue pointed to pile of crystals where two dragons were infusing magic into them. **"See these crystals over there?"** he asked. **"You just go up to Lhove and Rivet and ask them to put your powers into the crystals."**

**"Understood,"** Aeolus replied. Before he could approach the blue-winged green dragons, Bam stopped him with a paw to his chest.

**"Wait, before you talk to them. You should let our chief know that you're here to help,"** the blue dragon said.

The green dragon asked, **"Where is he?"** Bam answered by pointing to the orange-winged yellowish brown dragon, who was helping the others push the trees together. **"Thanks, I'll go talk to him."** Aeolus walked over to the village chief and asked, **"Excuse me, you're the village chief, aren't you?"  
**  
The dragon turned around and answered, **"I am. And you are?"**

**"Aeolus,"** the disaster answered simply.

Upon hearing the name, the other dragons close by stopped working and looked to Aeolus with interest. **"Aeolus? The same dragon who, along with Arcaon, invented the Spell?"** asked the chief.

**"Yes."**

**"Well it's an honor to meet you, o' savior of dragons,"** said the chief smiling. **"I'm Chief Doubloon, the leader of this village,"** he introduced himself. **"Well it's not a village yet until it's completely done."**

**"Which is why I'm here to help,"** said the disaster. **"I'm going to see if the Lhove and Rivet will put my lightning breath into the crystals. Then I can help out with other duties."**

Doubloon liked the idea and said, **"Ah yes, lightning crystals to zap the humans dead. It's quite more effective than flame breath if you ask me."**

**"Glad you see it that way, chief,"** Aeolus replied.

With a short nod, the chief said, **"Please do help out."** Then Aeolus turned and headed over to the two dragons.

As he walked, he was bombarded with telepathic questions from the other dragons. _'Wow, are you really the Aeolus who made the Spell?' 'How did you and Arcaon come up with a brilliant plan to free us all?' 'What does Arcaon look like? I want to talk to him, too.'_ Question after question filled his mind until he felt overwhelmed and annoyed.

Aeolus said out loud for everyone to hear, **"Enough! I'll answer your questions after we're done building our village."** The questions stopped coming, leaving the celebrity at peace.

The green dragon reached Lhove and Rivet one of whom stopped what they were doing to look at the stranger. **"Can I help you?"** he asked.

The disaster said, **"Yes, I'm here to give your crystals the power of my lightning breath." **

**"Okay, very well. Just blow our your lightning at the crystals I hold and we'll seal them inside,"** Lhove instructed as he picked up one of the empty crystals. Aeolus breathed in and blew out lightning bolts at the crystal. The object glowed with a light green aura as Rivet used his magic to trap the electricity inside.

* * *

After traveling for 20 miles, the Firestar family decided to take a rest. Danielle and Kylie got off their aunt's back and started playing with each other. Atlas looked at her little nieces and said, **"Don't stray too far from me. I want you both right where I can see you two."** As long as the hatchlings were nearby, Atlas would be able to protect them from dragon slayers, hybrids, and predatory animals on the hunt.

**"Okay, Aunt Atlas,"** they said. The sisters bat their paws at each other before Danielle pushed her sister over and pinned her down on her back. Kylie retaliated by kicking her feet into the whiptail's stomach to push her off. Soon the hatchling stopped playing when they noticed a figure in the distance. A young male human was laying face-flat on the ground.

**"Aunt Atlas, there's a human over there!"** cried Danielle as both sisters were scared.

**"What's that?"** asked the magi, getting up. She walked by her nieces and told them to hide behind a tree in case the human was hostile. The magi walked up to the blonde boy and noticed that he was armed with arrows and a quiver. Her first assumption was that he was a dragon slayer, but then she remembered her fellow slave Zee's friend, Katerina, and how the girl was nice to dragons. Maybe this boy was only hunting animals. But just in case he was a hunter, Atlas stood on guard and watched his reaction for a sign of good or bad.

The blonde boy stood up and tried to clean himself from the dirt he had gotten. He checked the ground for a moment before he sighed in relief, **"Oh...good, there really isn't any dead bodies of those insects..."** He was just about to move when he saw the dragoness was near him. He stared at her for a bit before he cried out some unintelligible words in surprise, **"Gyablablaba!"**Then he fell back on the ground. **"Ah! Hmmmm!"** he said as he wiped out some more dirt after he got up. **"Well, at least its better than my pot sister..."** he muttered for a moment before focusing his attention back to the magi, who found him to be quite a klutz on the first impression. **"Ah, right, umm..."** the boy said as he instead slowly raised his left hand and made a peace sign with it.

Apparently, the guy wasn't hostile at all. But to make sure, Atlas asked in a calm, but firm tone, **"Speak up, human. What are you doing in this forest and why do have bow and arrows with you?"** She looked to the boy's weapons.

**"Uhhhhhhhhhhhhh... wait... why did I bring my bow and arrows with me?"** the boy asked himself. **"Why... why... why, why, why, why, why...?"** He pondered for a bit, trying to remember his reason for his possessions. **"Maybe its for practice?"**he guessed. **"But I got bored very easily, so that's probably not it." **He guessed his second answer, **"Maybe it was for hunting? Hmm... but I didn't even need to eat... I don't count meat as snacks either... plus, it would take like 10 minutes to cook rabbit meat..."** He scratched his head and asked himself, **"Wait, why is their a dragon here anyway? I don't see them often..."** He thought for a moment. **"Maybe something interesting happened! Aww, that means I missed out..."** He sighed. Eventually, the boy just faced Atlas in silence for a few moments. **"I have no idea,"** he shrugged.

_'What a strange human,'_ the magi thought feeling awkward about the man. **"Well whatever... So human, you got any medicines and bandages to heal me with? Because these wounds here are slowing me down on my journey,"** she asked. During her travel, the family had an encounter with a bunch of men wielding spears and shooting arrows. She got stabbed on the shoulder, her hind leg, and took a few arrows on her back. Atlas disliked having to deal with pain while on the journey to the Northwest.

**"...A-actually, I don't have anything to heal you. The only thing I brought is my bow, my arrows and my quiver,"** the boy said, not reacting to the bloody wounds. **"Although I think there's an apple inside my quiver..."** He quickly took off his quiver and rummaged through it, dumping all of his arrows to see if there was an apple.

Atlas felt it was stupid and thought, _'How exactly does an apple heal me?'_

After finding no such fruit in question, the teenager said, **"Nope. Never mind, I don't have any apples. I'll refill my supplies of fruit later then."** Then he looked around. **"Maybe I should of put all my arrows in one place instead of dumping them and scattering them all over the place,"** he said as he started to collect them. **"Yeah, sorry, I, uh... don't have anything that would really help you,"** he said to Atlas calmly.

Atlas replied in disappointment, **"Oh, okay then."** Looks like she was going to have to carry on with her wounds... unless. **"Well what about your home? Do you have any supplies there?"** she asked. Humans always kept lots of their stuff at home, much like dragons do. Perhaps there was a good chance that the magi would be able to heal up there.

**"A-actually, I think I do have some supplies. Although..."** the boy said and sat against a tree trunk. **"T-t-that would mean going through my pot sister..."** He drooped his head sulkily.

**"Pot sister?"** asked the magi, wondering who this was. Was this 'pot sister' abusive or what? Maybe she will find out who the sister really is once the Firestars get to the boy's home.

The boy looked at the dragoness with a depressed face and lifted his hand slowly and "glitched" like a robot while doing so. He was about to say something about it, but instead just lowered his hand and just stared at the ground with a fearful and regretful face. **"S-s-s-she's... my... y-y-younger... s-s-sister..."** he stuttered like he was in terror.

**"Hmm... From the way you talk about her. I guess she's not a very nice person,"** said Atlas, as her assumptions were confirmed about the pot sister. **"Well don't you worry human or whatever your name is. If that sister of yours tries to hurt you, she'll have to answer to me, alright?"** she said. She was going to protect this friendly human from domestic abuse, no matter what.

**"She's nice to strangers, actually. She just hates me. Or maybe she's a Tsundere..."** the boy sighed. **"She does care for me... it's just that she has a habit of throwing soiled pots at my head whenever she has the chance... or maybe she'll hit me with a frying pan... "** he sighed again.

**'A sun-der-what?'** asked Atlas, having no clue what the strange word meant.

**"It just hurts so bad!"** He rubbed his head. **"The only good thing about it is that I get to mess around her... which leaves me with a frying pan mark..."** Then he said, **"Oh yeah, by the way, she likes plants. She's a flower addict, so don't bring her picked flowers, she'll rage."**

**"Well then, I'll go ask her so that you don't have to. Where does she live?"** asked Atlas, coming up with a solution just for everyone to get out okay.

**"Not too far from this forest, I think,"** the boy said.

**"Alright then,"** said the dragoness. Then she asked, **"Anyway, what is a tsundere? I've never heard of one before."**

**"Since you don't know what a tsundere is, it's basically a term to describe a female. Their are two types of tsunderes. The first type is a girl who is generally cold to males, or lovers. Those types eventually reveal a caring side and blush while at it; they try to cover it up though. Type two involves a sweet, kind and caring type of tsundere who later on becomes very bitter and mean at you, but still cares about you.** **Which type do you think fits her better?"** the boy explained and asked at the same time.

Atlas thought, _'Never knew there were female humans like that.'_ Then she replied, **"That's a good question, because I don't know that much. She's just a stranger to me. But I guess your sister might be a Type One, because I've never seen human siblings be nice to each other and then mean later on."** Some of her human families, who once owned her, had children who fought over petty things such as toys or made fun of each other, but then to some degree, developed tolerance of their siblings.

**"Haha, sisterly and brotherly bonds are like that. Smaller siblings are suppose to annoy you until you pretty much die, while the bigger ones are more mature and usually smarter,"** the boy smiled. **"To be honest, the reason why she's mad at me most of the times was when I played a prank on her at school. Flipped her skirt at the end of school and the first thing thing she did was punch my face. Ah, memories..."** he chuckled. **"Things would've been easier if I was a girl..."** he sighed.

_'She must be a Type Two then,'_ Atlas thought after listening to the story.**"Well probably..."** said the magi. Then she asked,**"So kid, what's your name, kid?"** She figured she had to know his name after learning some things about him. Danielle and Kylie had been watching and listening to the conversation the whole time. When no signs of hostility showed between the dragoness and human, the sisters thought that this boy was a nice human like the one who freed their father.

**"Henry,"** the boy replied before looking around. **"Tsk... I didn't expect this place to be so... fruitless. Then again, I come to this forest all the time, why have I not noticed this before?"** Henry hungrily licked his lips and said, **"If only this place was fruity..."** Then he stared at the magi for a bit before asking, **"So what's your name then? And where didja come from?"**

**"I'm Atlas,"** the magi answered. **"I was taking my nieces out of the Northeast region to go live in the Northwest, because I didn't want them getting torn apart by hybrids. You know, those upwalking bipedal dragons and those that look more draconic than halflings?"** Hopefully Henry wasn't going to berate her about her prejudice against hybrids like that annoying magical human boy did. But her reason sounded more like protective of the hatchlings than hostility on hybrids, so it was most likely that she wasn't going to earn any ire from him.

**"I didn't know there were such things as hybrids... Are they friendly?"** the boy asked.

**"Well some of them..."** Atlas replied grudgingly, while hoping he wouldn't get the wrong idea of placing himself in danger by trying to get buddy-buddy with those things.

Then Henry started to have a debate with himself as he ask questions that countered the others, **"Wait, the dragon said she was taking her nieces away in hopes that hybrids wouldn't kill them. Does that mean their aggressive? But shouldn't at least one be friendly to others? Hmm... what I want to know though is, how and why are they so aggressive if there aren't much dragon hybrids who aren't?"** He slowly moved his head to face the dragoness. **"Why are they so aggressive then?"** he asked.

She answered, **"The reason they're that is because they're born with the ability to go into hunter's mode at the smell of blood. Once they go into that mode, they won't stop attacking until you're dead. That's why I don't want my nieces around them in case they bleed."**

**"Oh, okay,"** the boy calmly said. **"Wait, you said you were bringing your nieces right? So that means..."** He started to scour around with his eyes to see if anything out of the ordinary. He didn't seem to find anything though. **"Huh, I guess it's either that you hid them in a very good spot or that its my eyes are just horrible at seeing and paying attention,"**Henry said.

**"Oh they're here alright. I just had them hiding somewhere in case you were a dragon slayer. I'll bring them out for you,"** Atlas said to Henry. Then she looked over to the tree and called, **"Danielle, Kylie, get over here and come meet Henry."** The whiptail and balloon sisters left their hiding spot and scampered over to their aunt's side. **"Henry, meet my nieces, Danielle and Kylie. Danielle's the whiptail with the black stripes and Kylie's the magenta one with the black face,"** Atlas introduced her nieces.

The hatchlings looked up at Henry curiously, wondering if he was nice or not. **"Hi,"** said Danielle, while her sister just looked on.

Henry waved at them. **"Aww... they're so cute! I wish I could take a picture of them on my home and send them to my sister... If I had one!"** he laughed. **"Man, I can't believe how technology seems to evolve over time. I never bothered to buy a phone for some reason."** He scratched his head. **"Heyo! I have totally forgotten your names even though they were announced a few minutes ago! Seriously, what are your names again?"** he asked them.

The sisters felt flattered when Henry called them cute. They smiled back and the whiptail answered, **"I'm Danielle!"**

The the balloon hatchling said, **"And I'm Kylie."**

The aunt laughed heartily, **"Yeah, they're cute alright. I can't wait to see what they'll look like when they grow up. I bet they're going to be beautiful."**

**"Heh, I'm sure they'll look pretty,"** Henry smiled and said. **"So... I dunno, have you eaten yet?"** he asked. **"Cause I now have almost nothing to say since I'm guiding you all to my house."** He laughed nervously.

**"Well we had breakfast this morning, but no lunch yet,"** answered Atlas.

**"Aunt Atlas, I'm hungwy,"** said Danielle, now having an appetite for food after Henry mentioned lunch. The magi, having heard the whiptail, felt that now would be a good time to eat.

Looking back at the boy, the dragoness said, "**Well you heard her. Let's go over to your place and..."**

Then Henry suddenly asked, **"Hey wait, didn't you say they were your nieces? Then where are their parents?"**

The magi started to look mad as her claws dug into the ground and growled, **"They were killed by hybrids in cold blood. Those monsters would have gone after my nieces next had I and another dragoness not killed them first."**

Henry stared at the the dragoness, **"Oh. I guess the hybrids... were... well... aggressive."**

**"That's why you got to be careful around them, Henry,"** warned Atlas. **"Don't ever go anywhere near them."**

**"Okay, got it,"** said Henry as he nodded. **"Why don't we try and forget this for now and distract ourselves then? Despair and regret probably won't help us except turn us into witches, if you know what I mean,"** He said and did a nervous smile.

Atlas agreed and said, **"Right, it ain't good getting my thoughts pent up about it now."** Henry started to walk towards his house and turned his head around to see if Atlas and her nieces were following him; they were.

* * *

Doubloon, Lhove, and Rivet (c) me  
Chi (c) Eveeoni (a.k.a. Sai)  
Henry and Yukki (c) Jass  
Zee and Katerina (c) Zanzibar79


	9. The Anime Siblings

**Chapter 8: The Anime Siblings**  
**  
"So what are we having fer lunch?"** asked Danielle, wondering if they'll have squirrels, bears, or any other animals.

**"I dunno. Maybe Atlas can hunt for ya,"** Henry shrugged. He looked around to see if any prey was around. **"This is a good chance for you two could learn how to hunt in this forest,"** he said, smiling. **"Hunting rabbits could be your tier goal right now."** The boy used his free hand to comb his messy long hair a bit to tidy himself. **"What do ya think, Atlas?"** he asked.

**"Yeah, I'll definitely hunt. But my nieces, they're way too young to be doing any hunting at this age. I'll go see if I can get myself a bear and them some rabbits and fruits. I'll meet you guys back at the house,"** Atlas said. Then she went off to go do some hunting.

**"So Henwy, what is a house?"** asked Kylie, not familiar with the word.

**"A house is a term us humans use, meaning shelter,"** Henry explained.

**"Wow, is it like a cave?"** the balloon hatchling, imagining the house to look like the exact same thing as a dragon's typical home.

The boy smiled and said, **"I see you little cuties here are not familiar with our terms. Although my house looks a bit different from a cave... it got... some... 'upgrades.'"** He quoted using his fingers. **"You won't believe how different it looks once you see it,"** Henry said. **"Trust me, it'll look different to you."** Then he told them, **"Ask me if you want to know more although some are hard to explain..."**

**"Okay,"** Danielle replied. **"What are upgwades?"**

**"Well... I dunno. It's just... different."** He shrugged, not knowing how to answer. **"To upgrade is to improve an object, changing it so it'll work better,"** he explained to the whiptail.

Danielle understood the term and replied, **"Ohh."**

Henry smiled and said, **"Yep!"** Then the boy asked, **"Anything else you want to ask?"**

Kylie replied, **"Nah, we just wan to see da house."** The sister were very curious to see what this house would look like.

The boy said, **"I think we're almost to my house. But let's continue talking. Let's see... hmmm... Uh... I dunno, do you...?"** He drifted off a bit. **"Uhhh... well... I really don't know... could you maybe talk about yourselves?"** Henry asked.**"It's alright if you think its a bit too personal... I could talk about myself if you want..."**

**"Sure! I like ta wun awound and play,"** said the whiptail happily.

The other sister spoke next with a smile, **"And I like ta blow up like a balloon and bounce awound. It's really fun!"**

Danielle said, **"When she does that, I like to toss her around. Mommy and Daddy would play with us, too."** Then she asked, **"Do you do anything for fun, Henwy?"**

**"Ohm. W-well... I guess I like to..."** The boy paused for a minute. **"I... I guess I like to hang out with my sister. Sure she's aggressive most of the times, but when she isn't, she watches movies with me sometimes, and we like to talk about the emotional times."** He smiled and continued, **"I suppose you can say having her force me to have me to cross dress is counted as "fun" also."** With a yawn, he said, "Archery and eating is fun too, I guess."

**"Wow, you do a lot of weird things, Henwy,"** said the whiptail.

Kylie asked, **"Yeah, are we going to see you and you sister doing those stuff when we get to you house?"** The sisters wondered what the movies look like, what cross-dressing is, and what archery is.

Henry laughed nervously with his face turning a bit red and said, **"I guess..."**

Danielle, eager to see the strange activities and how they're performed, cried, **"Oh boy, I can't wait to see what dey are. I bet dey're gonna to be fun!"** None of the sisters had no idea of what sort of monkey business that might happen in the house.

**"Our house should be very close now. Last time I checked, we lived somewhere in the forest!"** the boy exclaimed. **"My house is actually a bit small, so don't expect something ginormous,"** he told them as they strolled through the forest to get to his house. The sisters looked surprised as Danielle said, **"Wow, humans live in fowests, too? I thought Mommy told us dey live in cities."**

**"Some people live in the forests, like me and my sister," **Henry explained them.**"Most people would rather live in the cities though. I admit though, living in a city is usually easier than living in a forest."**

**"How so?"** asked the whiptail.

**"Well... I... don't exactly know why... it's just... easier to thrive in a city for us humans somehow,"** the boy said as he tried to explain. **"Being in a forest isn't so bad for me and my sister though. I get to relax and sleep outside when I have free time."** After a brief pause, he asked,**"Say, how will Atlas know where we are? Won't she have some difficulty on trying to find us?"**

Kylie answered, **"No she won't! We can use telepafy to show her where da house is. She'll find us dis way."**

Henry's eyes widened in surprise and exclaimed, **"You guys can do that?!"**

The balloon hatchling nodded and said, **"Yeah! We do it picturing who we want to talk to in our minds and send our toughts to dem."** She pointed to her noggin.

The boy sighed, **"I wish I had those powers. It would be fun talking with other people in your mind."**

**"Yeah, we could get to chat even when we were not around, if you have telepafy,"** said Kylie. She wished humans had telepathy so that the sisters could talk to Henry all they want when they resume journey to the west.

* * *

Atlas poked her head past a tree to find a not a bear that she was hoping for, but a deer eating twigs. The magi stalked as quietly as she could to take the deer by surprise. But unfortunately, the animal sensed her presence not by sound, but by the scent it smelled. The deer quickly pranced off to avoid the predator. The magi ran it after with earth spears launching at the creature. She didn't want her prey getting away, so that she would have to go and look again. In her haste, the spears kept missing until it hit the deer in the leg. It fell down before it got back up to run away. The attack had closed the widening distance between the two. Atlas used her wind aura to speed up herself after the limping deer.

The dragoness finally caught up to the deer and clamped her jaws down on it for the kill. She ate and munched on the creature, tasting its savory flesh and blood. Then after she ate, the magi went to hunt for another animal to eat, since one deer wasn't enough for a 16-foot-tall beast like her. This time, Atlas found a couple of squirrels and killed them with ice needles. She carried the pair with her and soon found an apple tree. She picked off three of the fruits and walked on some more until she found a bear, an animal that one of the slaves told her was delicious. Putting the hatchlings' foods down, she charged at the big prey and the bear turn tail to run from its predator.

Atlas used her earth magic to raise a stone wall in front of the bear, which the prey crashed into. The magi caught her prey and devoured the bear to fill her belly. Now that she was full, Atlas licked the blood of her lips and pushed off the remains of the flesh between her teeth to swallow to finish the rest of second part of lunch. The magi took the apples and squirrels and telepathically call one of her nieces, _'Kylie, use your telepathy to send me an image of Henry's house.'_

The balloon replied in her mind, _'We haven't gotten to da house yet, Aunt Atlas. We just still going dere.'_

_'Okay, let me know when you guys get there, okay?'_ said the aunt.

_'Okay, Aunt Atlas,'_ the balloon hatchling replied.

* * *

The human and two hatchlings looked straight ahead to see a small, brick house. It had a chimney and two windows sticking out from one side. Danielle looked at the building with interest and asked, **"Is that your house, Henwy? It looks neat!"**

**"I-is it?" **Henry said, sounding a bit confused and surprised.

**"Yeah,"** replied Danielle as her sister nodded with agreement.

The boy smiled a bit, looking content with the compliment. **"So...What do you think of Atlas?"** he asked. **"Do you think that someday you two may just be like her?"**

The whiptail replied, **"I like her. She's a nice and stwong auntie who keeps me and Kylie safe."** Even though, the sisters had only seen their aunt from last night until today, they already like her due to the stories about Atlas told by Flarina. **"When I gwow up, I hope I get to be stwong like her. She's a champion in dwagon tournaments. That's why she beat Wamkot and the other hybwids easily,"** Danielle continued.

Kylie piped, **"And I like Aunt Atlas, too. I want to be like her when I gwow up."**

**"I see. Good luck on becoming strong then,"** Henry said.

**"Thanks Henwy, we will,"** Danielle promised.

The boy looked at his house, which was now meters away. **"Oh, great, we're pretty much here at my house,"** he said. He faced towards at Kylie and asked, **"So I'm guessing you're showing Atlas my house now that we're pretty much here?"**

The balloon replied, **"I alweady showed Aunt Atlas da house. She's on her way wight now."** Then they went to the door and stopped before them. The sisters looked up at the boy, who suddenly looked hesitant and unhappy to be at his home. Unaware of his feelings, the magenta hatchling asked, **"Henwy, why are we standing outside? Are we gonna to go into da house or not?"** Without giving an answer, the human sighed and went to knock on the door.

Soon they heard a familiar voice from behind saying, **"Hey guys, I'm back!"** The trio turned around to see a magi dragoness approaching the trio.

**"Aunt Atlas, you're back!"** the sisters said at the same time.

**"Yep, and brought you all some food,"** said Atlas. She placed the squirrels and apples down by their feet. The whiptail went to munch on one squirrel at a time, while Kylie took one of the apples to eat.

Henry looked at the red fruits and muttered with a bit of envy, **"Lucky, You got apples..."** A doorknob was heard twisting and the boy looked to see his sister staring out at him. **"Hey Sis! Hows it goin..."** He was cut off and slammed in the head with a frying pan.

Atlas let out a silent gasp and the hatchlings stopped eating when they heard that banging sound and looked to the scene the girl had made, which made them uncomfortable. _'Whoa, she's scary,'_ thought Kylie, fearing that she might get hurt too if she angered the sister.

Henry rubbed his head from pain and shouted in confusion, **"What was that for?! I just came back!"**

The white-haired sister shouted back at him, **"You're late! Where the heck were you?!"** Her green eyes glared at him; it was obvious that she was pissed off. **"Baka! Baka baka baka!"** she shouted at him.

The boy exclaimed, **"What is the point of you hitting me?! It's seriously not going to help us at all!"** He was hit in the head by the frying pan again.

**"Well it helps me vent out anger! So it helps me a lot!"** the girl exclaimed.

Atlas decided to take a stand against this abuse and yelled angrily, **"Hey leave the poor kid alone! Just because he did something with your skirt, doesn't mean he deserves this kind of crap!"** She hated extreme punishment for something that didn't match up to the level.

The girl stopped doing anything for a moment and stared at the dragoness before glaring at her brother. **"Henry... you told her... about... that?"** she said, anger levels raising.

**"Erk!... Yes?"** Henry gulped fearfully.

**"Frying Hit!"** the sister yelled out and slammed the frying pan onto the boy's head with full force. The Firestars flinched defensively and shut their eyes tightly in response to avoid looking at that painful scene.

**"Owwwww!"** Henry moaned as the girl lifted the frying pan and went inside for a moment.

Danielle went up to the boy and asked in concern, **"Awe yew okay, Henwy?"** The dragons felt bad that their friend got hurt like that.

The boy forced a smile and made a peace sign as he assured, **"I'm alright... it... happens... every so often..."**

Soon she came back outside with a first-aid kit and sighed, **"Better fix your bleeding problems."**

**"What bleeding?"** the brother asked. This time he was suddenly hit with a soiled pot.

**"That bleeding,"** she replied.

Henry felt blood trickle down from his forehead and said in pain, **"Ohhh. That... bleeding..."**

Kylie looked at the red liquid staining the boy's head and got frightened. She clasped the sides of her face with her hands and cried, **"Oh my gosh, Henwy got hurt!" **

Atlas was about to grab the girl and scold her for hurting her brother and scaring her nieces, but didn't do anything when she saw the sister putting bandage around his head. She'll have word with her after this was done. _'And those_ bastards _in the city said that I was psycho. Just wait until they see this girl,'_ she thought.

Henry let out a sigh ad quietly asked, **"So... sis... how come you're angry at me this time...?"**

As she covered the forehead's bandage with the boy's blonde hair, the girl replied, **"You're late. And, I'm frustrated with the fact that the TV and all the other electronics aren't working..."**

**"What do you mean? Is there a sudden blackout?"** he asked curiously.

The girl nodded and said, **"Yep. And now I can't watch Puella Magi Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica..."** She puffed up her cheeks angrily and continued, **"Or hear their awesome music!"** She sighed in disappointment.

Atlas thought she knew the cause of the girl's problem and thought, _'The Spell...'_

**"Strange..."** Henry said, scratching his head. He turned to the magi dragoness and asked, "Hey Atlas, do you know why there was a sudden blackout?"

The magi shook her head and lied, **"That's a good question. I don't know what happened."** With the humans having taken up new measures to get around the Spell, Atlas figured that the cause of the blackout should remain a secret, no matter what. Even if Henry was a friendly human, there was no guarantee that he might leak out this information to the other humans, who would try to create their own magic spell to remove the Spell, so that they can go back to using technological weapons to oppressing dragons once more.

Danielle, on the other hand, was willing to answer the question without knowing what her consequences might be. **"I know wat it was. It was da Spell,"** she answered.

Atlas whipped her head around to her brown niece and scolded, **"Danielle!"** Great, now there was probably going to be a chance that their shortly-lived freedom would go back to the age of darkness.

**"Wat? Wat did I say?" **the whiptail answered, confused.

**"The... Spell...? What do you know about the Spell?"** Henry asked Danielle out of curiosity. His sister also stared at the whiptail and wanted to know about this Spell.

**"Who casted the spell?"** the girl asked, her tone suddenly sounded friendly and curious. Her brother looked at Atlas for a moment before focusing back on the hatchling.

Before her niece could say something, Atlas formed a telepathic bond with the whiptail and told her, _'Don't say anything.'_

Danielle looked back at her aunt and replied, _'Why not, Aunt Atlas?'_

_'Because they might accidentally tell this to bad humans, who would then destroy the Spell and make us slaves again,'_ the magi answered.

_'Eek! I dun want to be a slave!'_ said the young whiptail, who was afraid of the idea.

_'Then don't tell any human about the spell, got it?'_ Atlas told her.

_'Okay, Aunt Atlas,'_ Danielle promised. Then the hatchling looked back at Henry and his sister and answered, **"Sowwy, I can't tell yew. Aunt Atlas says that it's a secwet."**

At this point, the magi facepalmed at the stupidity before reminding herself, _'Don't be mad, Atlas. She's just a kid who doesn't know any better.'_ Then she looked at the human siblings and decided to come clear. She said, **"Alright, it looks like the cat is out of the bag. But before I tell you what the spell is, can you promise to keep this a secret from anybody, no matter what?"**

Henry made a peace sign and said, **"Okay."**

His sister just nodded understandingly and asked, **"So what's the secret you've been hiding?"**

Although they may have promised, Atlas felt the need to twist the truth a bit just for safety precaution and answered, **"The Spell was cast by one powerful dragon; who was a magi and the strongest in the world. He had just invented the Spell last night and used it to free his kind from slavery around the world by permanently disabling human technology. It was suppose to only work on those used to keep dragons down, but it looks like the Spell had done its job too well and went for the harmless tech as well. And that's why your home appliances aren't working anymore."** Now that she thought about it, she wondered how and why that happened.

**"T-that means..."** The girl sat in a corner with her frying pan. **"N-no TV... no computers..."** she muttered in quiet sadness.

Knowing how the girl felt, the magi said with sympathy, **"It's going to be tough living without the things you'll miss, kid. I know I've been through that a lot."** Along with Flarina and some others she lost in her life, the magi had her parents killed by hunters when she was a hatchling and then sold into slavery, losing her freedom and her childhood in the process.

Then the girl looked as if she had forgotten something and rushed back into the house. She stayed in there a little while until she returned with two things; a big container of ice cream and a box of popsicles. She dumped the container with ice cream onto Henry's lap and opened the box to receive a popsicle. **"Can you eat the container of ice cream? The fridge isn't working anymore. We need to finish this quick,"** she asked her brother as she took off the wrapper and bit into it.

Henry went inside to grab a plastic spoon to scoop up a piece for him to eat. After he returned, he took a spoonful and tasted it. **"It's strawberry-flavored,"** he said.

The sisters looked at the strange foods the siblings were eating and Kylie asked, **"What are dose? Are dey meat or fwuit?"**

The boy looked at the hatchlings and answered, **"It's called ice cream. It's very sweet like fruit, so yes."** Henry used the back end of the spoon to scoop up a piece of strawberry flavored and gave Kylie a sample. **"Wanna try? It's pretty tasty, if ya ask me,"** he asked.

**"Sure, Henwy! I wan some,"** said the balloon. She opened her mouth and ate the strawberry ice cream on the spoon. As expected, the ice cream was pretty delicious. **"Mmm! Yummy! I wan some more,"** she said hungrily.

Danielle declined to have some of that treat as she said why, **"I can't eat ice cweam, cause I'm a whiptail and I only eat meat."**

The boy looked at his sister for a moment, who was biting and chewing the popsicle. **"Yukki... Won't you get brain freeze since you're literally chewing on them?"** he asked, voicing his concern.

The girl responded, **"I do this all the time. Mom was able to bite into a popsicle and chew on them and she never got brain freeze."** Atlas felt a painful sting on her body and went to licked her wounds to keep them disinfected.

Henry looked at the magi and asked, **"Have you ever tasted ice cream before?"**

Atlas stopped licking and replied, **"No, but I can't eat it either, because just like Danielle, I'm a carnivore."**

**"I'm sorry to hear that, Atlas,"** the boy said as he ate some more strawberry flavored ice cream. Henry was eating it it quicker now, as the ice cream had started to melt.

Danielle looked to what Yukki was eating and asked, **"And what about what she's having? Are they meat or fruit?"**

Henry gave Kylie another scoop using the back end. **"It's too bad that ice cream probably won't even exist anymore now that all the electrical appliances are gone,"** he sighed.

**"Aww, dat stinks,"** said the balloon, disappointed that she was never going to eat another of that cold creamy dessert again in her life time.

**"I guess I'll go and buy some groceries then,"** Henry said.

Yukki stared at her brother, confused. **"Dude, how are they going to accept money in this situation? It's probably going to be completely empty and-oh..."** She quickly figured out what he was up to. **"You're not actually going to buy food, are you?"** she questioned him.

Henry whistled a bit. **"Maybe,"** he said, sounding clever.

Atlas offered to help out the boy, **"Well if you're going to go into the city for food, I can give you a ride there for faster traveling. But first I need my wounds treated."** Because if she flew now, it would be rough having to feel the pain of her injuries during her trip to and back. **"Someone wrap some bandages around my wings and chest,"** she said.

Fed up with waiting for an answer, Danielle went to one of the popsicles and tried to eat through the wrapper. But it felt tasteless, tough, and a bit slippery. **"How do you get dis food out?"** she asked.

**"We use hands,"** Henry said, showing his hands. **"You can easily open the wrapper using paws,"** he said and grabbed a popsicle.

Danielle watched the boy unwrap the popsicle and thought, _'Oh, so that's how you get the stick food.'_

Henry reached out the purple popsicle to the whiptail and asked, **"I know you're not exactly a herbivore, but do ya wanna try eating this?"** He used his other hand to eat some ice cream.

She looked at snack for a bit and replied, **"Hmm... okay."** Then she gave the popsicle a lick and felt a bad taste in her mouth. She spat on the ground and said, **"Yuck!"**

**"Does it taste that bad?"** the boy asked curiously. He took the popsicle an licked it, despite it already licked by the hatchling.**"It's Vanilla flavored..."** he said as he licked the sweet, savoring popsicle.

**"Va... nilla?"** asked Danielle trying to repeat the word. She was clueless about to what kind of fruit a vanilla is.

Henry looked at Atlas and said, **"My hands aren't available right now."**

**"I guess I'll do it then,"** volunteered Yukki, who shrugged and snatched the medical kit. She hurried over to the dragoness and took out a bandage. **"Okay, where should I wrap first?"** she asked.

The magi replied, **"Start with the chest first, because that wound is next to my heart."** Because of that fact, it was the most worrying of the three wounds.

The girl looked at Atlas's wounds. **"Ummm... Do you want me to try and disinfect it or...?"** she asked, sounding unsure at the end.

The dragoness declined, **"Nah, I already licked my wounds clean. All the germs should die by now. Just go ahead and wrap them already."** Saliva was a dragon's natural medicine to cleaning out germs in wounds as there was lysozymes to aid against infection. Although it wasn't the most effective disinfectant compared to a healer dragon's magic, dragons did this in case there wasn't one around.

**"O-okay!"** Yukki said and started to unwrap some of the bandages. **"Uhhh..."** she looked at how Atlas was standing.

_'Hm?'_ the magi thought, thinking that the girl needed something.

**"C-can you like, lower down a bit so I can wrap this bandage around you...?"** she asked. She couldn't exactly reach over to wrap the wounds in bandages.

**"Sure thing,"** Atlas replied and she pressed herself down to the ground without touching the dirt, so that the bandages can be wrapped around without the earthly floor getting in the way.

Yukki went to wrap the bandages all over the dragoness's body. After she was done, the girl scrutinized at her medical kit.**"Looks like we're almost out of medical supplies..."** she said before glaring daggers at her brother, who started to shiver a bit.

**"Now now sis, no need to leak out black aura..."** Henry said, trying to calm down his sister a bit.

Yukki stopped glaring for a moment. **"Hmph, fine. But if I catch ya being stupid..."** She picked up her frying pan. **"Yoouuu should knoowww..."** she said before rushing off into her house.

Henry looked on in silence before saying fearfully, **"I'm screwed."** Then he finished the last of his ice cream.

Atlas snorted quietly at disgust for Yukki's abusive threat. Then she thought to the family's supplies. _'Looks like we have something else to look for besides ice cream,'_ she thought. The dragoness looked at the boy and said, **"Alright Henry, hop aboard. We'll go see if the same place we're going has those medical supplies your sister says that she's running out of."** She figured that time away from home would keep the poor boy out of his sister's fury and give him a moment's peace. The dragoness sat on the ground and waited for Henry to climb aboard her back. Then she looked at her nieces, **"And you two stay in the house until I get back, alright?"**

**"Okay, Aunt Atlas,"** said the sisters at the same time before they walked inside the house.

Henry quickly rushed over to the magi and quickly climbed on her back. **"Haha! My sister is going to kill me, but I'll deal with the pain somehow!"** he said in an almost sing-song tone.

The dragoness looked in concern and asked, **"Are you sure?"**

**"Maybe I should 'buy' some frying pans..."** the boy said out loud.

Atlas didn't like the idea of giving the sister more weapons to use and suggested, **"Yeah uh... Let's forget about the frying pans if you don't like getting hurt."**

**"Or maybe I could buy a dress, or some makeup..."** Henry muttered. **"Anyways, onwards to adventure time!"** he yelled out before snickering. Then Atlas stretched her wings and took off into the air. Looking down, the boy noticed his sister through the window glaring at him. **"Orrrr, maybe I could pay the store somehow I guess... heh heh..."** he laughed nervously. The dragoness used her wind magic to push the winds against her wings to boast her speed to make getting into the city quicker. It was going to take a while to get there since she was like 5 miles from the nearest city.

* * *

The sisters looks looked at all the furniture and stuff that was inside the house. **"Wow, what a bunch of stwange things you have,"** said Kylie.

Danielle looked at some portraits hanging on the wall, some of them looked like Henry and his sister. Thinking they were alive, Danielle asked, **"Hi, are yew nice humans, too?"** When the portraits didn't respond, the whiptail asked again, **"Hello, say something? Awe you nice humans or not? And why are yew staying still like that?"**

Henry's sister came over and asked, **"Uhhh, girls, why are you talking to a portrait of my mom?"**

The whiptail turned around to see the girl. **"A portwait? What's that? And that lady is yew mom? She looks pwetty!"** she asked and complimented.

**"A portrait is something to... um... well..."** The girl paused for a bit. **"A picture of yourself in a frame, I guess?"** she said uneasily.

Danielle asked, **"Ooh, is it like how yew imagine someone like in telepafy and put them on the fwame?"** She guessed that was why the humans in the portraits weren't talking.

**"Uhh... Sure..."** the girl replied.

The hatchling became enthusiastic and asked, **"Wow! I'd like to make a portwait of Aunt Atlas someday. How do yew do that?"**

**"The picture?"** Henry's sister snickered a bit. **"Haha... Me no have no clue,"** she said in a random accent. Danielle was humored as she made a smile. **"Maybe you should ask Henry. He should know more things about the world than me... I hope,"** she said to her.

**"I hope Henry didn't refill half of the food supplies candy..."** she muttered. The girl clutched onto her frying pan with a grim face. It was almost as if a black aura was leaking out of her.

Kylie noticed the girl looking upset and asked, **"What's wong? Are yew mad?"** She hoped the human wasn't mad at her sister and would hit her with the frying pan like she did with her brother.

Th girl glared at the balloon hatchling, causing her to flinch. **"I'm FINE! I'm really, really great,"** she tried to say in a sweet tone. **"AND I'll feel even better when I'll crush his neck!"** she shouted, which made the sisters feel uncomfortable. **"Or something like that,"** Henry's sister said as she quickly calmed down. She loosed the grip of her frying pan. **"Sorry, I just dislike my brother. Pay no attention to it,"** she sighed.

**"Okay, but why dun yew like yew bwother?"** asked Kylie.

**"Why?"** the girl replied. **"Because he is stupid and irresponsible, and almost never seems to take things seriously,"** she said with a huff.

**"Oh..."** the balloon responded.

**"I guess my brother does care for me thought..."** she muttered. **"I'll be nicer to him, if you want. But only because you said you wanted to. That is, if you do. Not like I'm actually doing it for his sake..."** She turned away a bit to take in a deep breath.

**"Okay, thanks... uh..."** the hatchling said before she couldn't find any name to call the girl, since none of the sisters learned of the human's name.

**"It's Yukkiona,"** she replied. **"Call me Yukki or Yukko for short,"** she added on before she went to sit on a couch nearby. **"Also... How long will this blackout last?"** she asked them. **"I have a feeling I'm going to use my frying pan more often around Henry,"** the girl muttered out loud.

Danielle replied, **"I dun no."**

**"Me neither. I'll go ask Aunt Atlas,"** said Kylie. Then she formed a telepathic bond with the dragoness. _'Aunt Atlas, how long will the blackout last?' _After getting an answer, she replied, _'Okay, Aunt Atlas.'_ The balloon said to Yukki, **"Atlas said that a power plant got destwoyed by dwagons."**

**"What?!"** Yukki shouted in shock. **"Well this is just great! It's going to be a while before I eat ice cream again,"** she whined.

* * *

**Author's Note:** This chapter was originally going to have some more scenes including where Atlas and Henry go to the city and encounter a vampire dragon horde inside a supermarket, but I decided to move them over to Chapter 9 as I felt that it would make this chapter too long.

Yukki (c) Jass


	10. Dangerous Errand

**Chapter 9: Dangerous Errand**

After some time later, the two made it to the ruined city and went to search for the grocery store. Since the electric lights were no longer working, Atlas had use her fire aura to give light to her sight in the dark evening. Henry took surprise to see himself covered in flames and cried out in panic, **"Oh my gosh, I'm on fire!"** He tried to beat down the fires with his hands.

Atlas felt what her friend was doing and told him, **"Relax, this is my fire aura. It doesn't hurt anyone I cast it on."**

**"It doesn't?"** asked the confused boy, who had calmed down now. **"Well I guess that explains why I'm not burning at all,"** he said before putting a hand on his back and laughing embarrassed.

**"Glad you figured that out. Besides, it'll help us stay clear of danger,"** the dragoness said. During her flight, Atlas saw that there were dragons who decided to make their homes in the buildings as prize of their vengeance against the humans. Because most dragons around the world hated humans, she had to be careful not to run into any of them, or else they would think that Henry has made her his slave and try to kill him. Soon, Atlas heard her niece's question and replied,_'Like I said, the Spell is supposed to be permanent. That means all the human tech, if the Spell really did get the harmless ones too, will never work again.' _She came across a destroyed power plant that had been burned to the ground. _'Huh, I guess that's why Henry's household stuff aren't working anymore,'_ she thought, now knowing it wasn't the Spell that was behind their misfortune. She told Kylie about the power plant before telepathic communication was over.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the boy asking, **"Hey Atlas, have ya ever noticed how the city looks like its been in a war zone? What do you think happened here?"**

**"Huh? You don't know?"** asked the magi.

**"Nope,"** Henry answered. **"Yukki and I had been watching anime all night long yesterday. We didn't get to watch news or anything."**

**"Oh..."** Atlas replied. **"Remember that Spell I told you about?"**

**"Yeah, why?"** asked the boy. The dragoness told him that every dragon around the world went on a rampage to attack their oppressors to vent out all the anger and suffering they had went through under the hands of their masters. Henry was surprised and in awe as he said, **"Whoa! That kind of anger sounds much more dangerous than my sister's."**

The magi replied, **"Yep! That's what a lifetime of pain and frustration can make you do."**

Henry said, **"Guess I shouldn't get on a dragon's bad side, if I value my life."**

**"Or better yet, stay away from dragons in general,"** said Atlas. **"I and some others may trust you, but I know a lot of others who'll want to kill you just for being human."** She thought about such dragons of the latter such as Aeolus, who deemed all humans a threat to dragonkind, no matter if they were good or bad. After a while, Henry found the grocery store and told the dragoness to land in front of the building. She lowered herself to let the rider off as she told him, **"Alright Henry, we're here. Go get what you need and come back."**

The boy hopped off and asked her, **"Okay, but first could you unflame my body? What if the foods I touch burn?"**

**"Good point,"** Atlas said matter-of-factly, because she knew the fire aura would burn all those outside of its protection. She used her magic to dispel most of Henry's fire aura until only his head was blazing, so that he could see through the darkness inside the store.

The boy thanked her before he walked towards the supermarket, where he went inside through the now doorless entrance. Atlas could see the light of his head getting smaller and smaller through the window as he went down the aisle. She stared out into space as she let her mind wander on thoughts of what her new home would be like. Perhaps a cave on the ground, a new dragon village, or in the mountains. Then she noticed a flying dragoness in the sky, but didn't care to give her much attention for now as she moved her view down from the sky. Soon, she saw snow falling down and became curious. _'That's strange. The sky's clear and it's summer time, but yet it's snowing. What the hell is going on?'_Atlas quickly had an idea on what, or rather who, was behind this as she looked to the dragoness who was clouding up the sky and making it snow._'Oh, I guess that must be her work. Don't know why she's trying to make it snow here though,'_ the magi thought. The snow quickly blew hard and fast, causing the parking lot to get covered in its white cold blanket. Atlas had to intensify her fire aura to make the flames bigger and warm herself up against the increasingly cold atmosphere. Any snowflake that touched the fires or landed in the uncovered black asphalt that bordered the magi was instantly melted.

* * *

Henry drooled at the sweet things in the store. Marshmallows, chocolate, juice and all other kinds of sweet things that hadn't been touched during the attack were still in the store. **"It's like Heaven!"** he exclaimed. He snatched a bag of marshmallows and hugged it. **"You are very squishy, marshmallows,"** he said to it playfully. The boy filled the basket with sweet things, until he saw the frying pan. He stared blankly in silence as it reminded him so much of his sister, although it was mostly because he was hit with pots daily. He slowly took the frying pan and placed it in his basket before towing off to obtain other supplies. **"Now All I gotta do is buy some food where you can easily eat it and... oh, hey, is that instant noodles?"** Henry said and quickly rushed over to fill his basket with beef-flavored ramen, chicken-flavored, and shrimp ramen. Then he went over to the pharmacy aisle to take the bandages, medicine, and other useful stuff. With the basket being nearly food, all the boy had left to buy was the ice cream. But chances were that they had melted and probably spoiled over time.

He'd simply leave and make it easier on his time and energy, but what would Yukki say if she found out that the frozen desserts were still there. Letting out a sigh, Henry said, **"I guess I better go check."** He made his way over to the frozen desserts aisle and found no light shining in the freezers. Also, the teen felt no chilly atmosphere coming from the freezers. In an attempt to deny these observations that were telling him the bad news, the boy opened one of the glass doors and took out the one of the ice cream boxes. The package felt like it was at room temperature on his hands. Henry knew what disappointing thoughts he was thinking, but still fought to deny the truth. _'Come on, please don't be what I think you are,'_ he thought. He removed the lid and saw exactly what reality had been screaming to him; the melted pink liquid of what used to be strawberry ice cream. **"Oh..."** the boy moaned in disappointment. He thought the same fate might have happened to the other boxes of ice cream and the frozen snacks, but he didn't want to give up just yet. He took out every box, checked them, and threw them to the side if their contents liquefied. It went on until every box of ice cream, popsicles, sherbet, and Italian ice was out of the freezers. Tired and defeated, Henry slumped over and sighed, **"Aw man, my sis is going to kill me."**

**"Not if I kill you first,"** said a low-pitched demonic voice behind him.

The boy straightened up in a panicked surprise and turned around as he asked, **"Who said that?!"**

**"Me!" **said the black & white vampire dragon in an echoing tone. His eyes were glowing eerily red, making the boy jump and yelp in fear. **"What are you doing here, human? You know this city's dangerous now that we've taken over your homes,"** he asked as he walked towards Henry, who was walking backwards scared.

**"I-I-I was just t-trying to get some ice cream for s-s-sister,"** Henry stuttered. **"Th-that's all."**

**"Ice cream?"** the vampire dragon asked before laughing at the boy's stupidity. **"You simple-minded fool! Don't know you know your city's in an eternal black-out? You think you'll find ice cream here?!"** he asked, stomping his foot as he thrust his head forward, making the human more scared than ever.

**"W-w-well I..."** Henry tried to come up a reason to explain himself without looking like a fool to the killer vampire. **"I was hoping the blackout wouldn't do anything to this part of town. I... So I thought the ice cream... would be okay."**

**"Well you thought wrong, human,"** the vampire said. **"There is no ice cream here. But if you're that desperate to find what you're looking for."** His month turned into an evil grin and said in a louder and startling volume, **"Then maybe you can find your precious ice cream inside me!"** The dragon lunged his open jaws at the teenager, who screamed and turned around to run away. The vampire pursued after his prey through the street of the refrigerated foods.

Henry made a turn into the canned food aisle and soon felt his feet step onto what felt like a flesh. He looked down and saw a dead ash gray hatchling below him; it's body looked like it had been weak and sickly at birth. The eerie sight sent chills up the boy's spine and made him shriek; he was now more determined to escape the supermarket right away. As he moved along, more dead hatchling bodies appeared, all in the same state and color as the first one. _'Oh cripes, this dragon's a heartless killer. If I don't get out of there, I'm going to end up looking like these baby dragons,'_ Henry thought, trying to avoid stepping on the bodies as best as he can. A few times he accidentally did so, nearly making him trip and slowing him down a bit for the vampire to get closer. At the end of the aisle, a pairs of tiny red glowing eyes appeared in front of him, from the sides, and on the shelves behind him. They belonged to the vampire dragonets who were leering at his hungrily and smilingly open-mouthed to show off their pointy teeth. **"Y-yikes!"** Henry cried.

The adult dragon finally caught up to him and let out a triumphant laugh as he said, **"Ha ha ha, you thought escape would be so easy, did you?"** The boy hesitated to turn his head around to look at him and speak. **"It's a good thing I had stolen some eggs to make minions from. They help trap our prey easily."**

**"Heh... I can see why,"** the human replied, distressed that he couldn't find a way around them.

**"But anyway, enough talk. I think it's time my children claim their reward for a job well done. Everybody feast!"** the vampire said. The dragonets were all too eager to drink the boy's blood, so they immediately leapt and flew at him.

Henry used his arms to shield himself and knocked back the first two, a black male and a white female. The boy let out a desperate shout, **"Atlas, help!"**

* * *

It had been a short while since Henry left to to do his search in the supermarket and Atlas was still waiting for him to return. By now, the snow dragoness had flown off away out of sight over the building. The magi was still clueless about the snow being dumped at the parking lot, but she brushed that aside and focused her attention at the doors and windows of the store. Her patience was finally rewarded with the sight of Henry's flaming head shown in the darkness, but he was accompanied by many pairs of red eyes. Atlas became alert and worried for what hostility the dragons would have against the boy. After she moved in to get a closer look at the scene, she lowered her head to the window's level and saw through it to see the dragonets swarming and attacking the human. **"No!"** the dragoness cried desperately. She had to save him fast before he would get eaten. Using her magic energy, she powered up her body to be strong enough to break through against the hard shell of the supermarket. After she was fully charged, the magi rammed into the building and broke through, destroying the entrance and leaving a big hole there. The vampires stopped their assault to look at the furious flaming beast in surprise. **"Let him go, you bloodsucking bastards!"** Atlas yelled.

Henry lifted his upper torso off the floor, but not standing up. He looked at her with a bit of relief on his scratched face and said, **"Atlas, you came."**

**"What's this? A dragoness who allied herself with a human?"** asked the vampire. He let out a short laugh in amusement and said, **"Well what a surprise! I guess you must not care so much about our suffering caused by these humans."**

Atlas growled, **"You leave him out of this, scumbag! I bet you he didn't do anything to us dragons."**

**"'Bet', you say?"** the vampire asked. He grinned at her naivety and continued, **"That sounds like an assumption. I can't believe you'd risk your life for a someone you barely know, especially a human. You might either be noble or a half-witted fool without a brain cell."** Some of the dragonets snickered while covering their smiles with their paws.

The magi growled, taking offense from the vampires' ridicule and laughter. **"Don't insult my intelligence, you long-fanged freaks!"** she snarled. **"I'll have you know that I was a champion in the dragon fighting tournament for nearly a century in a row and not once have I ever lost a battle!"** she yelled to warn them of her ferocious might. She was going to use it if those vampires don't let go of Henry or keep infuriating her further. **"So if you know what's good for you, you better scram before I go ape-shit on you!"**

**"Making threats are we?"** the dragon said, completely unfazed. **"Well you should know that being a long-time champion doesn't mean that you're invincible. Let me be the one to remind you that magi dragons such as yourself have an aversion to darkness much like humans have to lead."** The vampires walked towards Atlas like a pack of wolves getting ready to attack. The magi stood her ground as fearlessly as she can be. These vampires were not going intimidate her no matter what their element may be. Plus all of them were smaller than her, so she had the advantage in being physically stronger. The head vampire made a ghastly smile and said, **"So tell me, have you ever survived this?"** All at once, the vampires blew out their black flames at the dragoness. These flames became mixed with her flame aura that it started burn the user it had once protected. Atlas roared out from the excruciating pain.

Henry had gotten scared by how his friend was getting hurt. With his arm stretched out as if he was trying to reach her, he shouted worriedly, **"Atlas!"**

The magi turned and retreated out of the building to avoid any further damages. **"Mwuahahaha!"** the head vampire laughed.**"What's the matter? I thought you were a champion? Can't handle the heat? Well stay out of my lair!"** he mocked her.

Atlas dispelled her aura so to prevent anymore harm before she glared at the vampires and growled, **"You bastards..."** Within the next second, she cast a more protective cover in the form of a light aura. The horde all screeched and snarled from the blinding light hurting their eyes as they turned their heads away. Vampire dragons had a natural negative phototaxis to light, because light magic was one of the breed's weaknesses alongside garlic. **"You're going to pay for this!"** the dragoness yelled. Then she cast a barrage of light lasers at the horde. The spells burned off the the dragonets' flesh and filled the air with screams so loud that Henry had to cover his ears to keep himself from becoming deaf.

The vampire leader squeezed his eyes tight and roared, **"Aaah, it burns! It burns!"** No one could not handle the intense pain from the lasers. The head vampire had to save his horde quickly, so he issued the order, **"Enough! Everyone, retreat."** The vampires turned tail and ran off into the darkness to avoid any more of the barrage. Now it was only Henry left alone in the light and safe from his would-be predators. The dragon's voice boomed from the shadows, **"You win this time, magi. But next we see your human, he will become our lunch and we'll make sure you don't ever stop us. Go human, go back to your dragon."**

The boy picked himself up off the floor and walked over to Atlas. He shielded his eyes with his hand to block out the light aura's harsh glare. After he was outside, the light aura dimmed itself and disappeared. Henry dropped his hand down as he said,**"Thanks Atlas. If it wasn't for ya, I'd-"** He stopped talking when he saw a sight he thought was gruesome. His eyes went wide and his mouth dropped agape. **"Atlas, you look awful. Is that what the dark element does to ya?"**

The magi's body had been covered in severe 3rd degree burns that exposed the pink of her flesh and destroyed her eyelids. There were some dark burnt spots on her body and a few bones of her wings were seen amongst its flesh. The dragoness answered, **"Yes, Henry. That's what it does to me. The fire just added more fuel to it."** She winced when she felt her burns sting. **"I've suffered attacks like that many times in the tournaments. So that's nothing,"** she continued.

**"Yeah, but how do ya get healed afterwards?"** Henry asked. **"I don't think even my pot sister can treat all those burns."**

Atlas explained, **"My slave masters used a white dragon to heal all those wounds. That's why I always look unscarred after a battle."**

**"Well that's cool,"** said the boy. **"But where can we find a white dragon? We hardly get much dragons around these woods."**

The magi recalled the dragonet from this morning and thought about asking her help. She could ask her for her location and teleport to there in a jiffy. Before Atlas could ever think to do that, a male dragon voice sounded from somewhere asking,**"What happened here?"** The dragoness and human looked to see some dragons approaching them. Three of them were using the held flames in their mouths as torches to light the way.

They stopped 15 feet away and stared at Atlas's hideousness. **"Oh my goodness! What happened to her?"** asked a shocked aqua-colored dragoness.

**"Look at those burns!"** a brown dragon said. More dragons joined in and babbled about the magi's burns.

This started to get on Atlas's nerves. She scowled at them, but no eyelids to show her emotion, her mask looked less angry than she was trying to be. Then she roared over them, **"Shut up!"** The ramblings immediately turned into silence. **"What are you all here for anyway? To gaze at me like I'm some freak show exhibit?! Well this show's over! You all better run on home before I tear your asses up,"** she yelled.

The dragons were taken aback by the magi's rage; they hadn't mean to offend her at all. The leader of the group apologized,**"We're sorry, ma'am. We didn't mean to hurt your feelings. We only came because Frostfire saw a human riding and thought that you might have been his slave. So she cast some snow here for us to landmark where you were."**

The magi thought back to the snow dragoness from earlier and thought, _'So that's why she snowed on me.'_

The leader continued, **"We were only going to free you from him. I mean look at what he put you through."**

Henry took offense to being accused of abusing Atlas, while the magi growled at the dragons' ignorant assumption. The boy defended himself, **"I didn't do this to her! Those dragons inside did!"** He pointed to the grocery store, where the real culprits lived.

**"That's right!"** Atlas snarled. **"I risked myself to save him; not have made out to be a criminal! And for your information, he's not a slaver, he's just a nice kid living alone out in the woods with his sister. I only took him to the grocery store to get what he needed!"**

**"Oh sorry, my bad,"** the leader said as the magi's anger made him feel bad about making a wrongful accusation against the boy. **"I didn't know he was innocent. It's just that most humans are bad."**

**"Yeah well, Henry's not a BAD human,"** the magi emphasized spitefully. **"Now if you'll excuse me, I got a white dragonet I need to see right now!"**

Before Atlas could use telepathy, a voice shouted from the crowd, **"Wait! I can help!"** The dragons moved aside to let the white dragon through to her. He guaranteed, **"I can heal all your burns and you will good as new."**

The magi's anger subsided and she felt glad that there was a healer among them. **"Well good, that makes things a lot easier," **she said, knowing how much time and energy he would save.

The white dragon nodded and said, **"It certainly does. Now still and let me work my magic on you."** Atlas stood and froze intently as she watched the white dragon use his healing magic on her, covering her in a light blue aura. The pain gradually subsided as burns disappeared and new flesh tissues and scales grew in place. Soon, the magi was back to her former self.

Atlas blinked her eyes to get the feel of her recovered lids. **"Ahh, now that feels much better,"** she said at the joy of feeling relieved.

Henry walked up to the white and showed his scratches and bites on his skin and torn patches of the cloth. **"****_'_****Scuse me sir, can you heal me too?"** he asked.

The white looked at the human's wounds and said, **"Sure."** He worked his magic on the boy as well until he was healed, save for the clothes as healing magic had no effect on inorganic things.

The boy smiled at the healer and said, **"Thanks!"**

**"You're welcome,"** the white replied and returned the smile.

Atlas looked to the boy and said, **"Well Henry, it looks like we're done here. Sorry you didn't get what you need. But you can always try again tomorrow morning, because that's when the vampires will sleep."** The vampire breed was known to sleep permanently during the day until dusk. Well "sleep" as in being frozen in their state of looking like they were dead. No sound, scent, or touch would ever wake them up.

Henry became disappointed and sighed, **"That's just great. What am I going to tell Yukki when I get back home empty-handed?"**

The magi knew that there was no doubt that the girl was going to abuse her brother for failing his errand. But she was not about to let her lay a hand or pot on him. She had an idea and assured him, **"Don't worry, Henry. I won't let her attack you again. We'll just explain what happened and tell her it was too dangerous to get them."**

The dragon leader overheard what they said and decided to be generous as he offered his help, **"Don't worry, I can go get your supplies if you want."** He told them why he was the perfect candidate to do it, **"I'm the chief on this side of this city, everyone should respect me. I doubt the dragons who attacked you will lay a tooth or claw on me."** It was reasonable, because any individual who attacked the dragon chief or king/queen would be committing treason against his/her horde. The chief looked at Henry and said, **"Now come with me, I'll escort you to whatever you need."**

The boy replied happily, **"Thanks, mister!"**

**"Why you're welcome, young one,"** the chief replied. He looked to the one of the firebreathers and told him, **"Flame, come with me. I'll need your light to help us."** The red dragon approached his leader and then the three went into the grocery store. Atlas and the dragons sat outside and waited for them to return with the groceries.

A few minutes passed by until the light of Flame's fire was seen coming out of the supermarket. Henry had returned and he was carrying the basket he had lost inside. **"Atlas, I'm back!"** he called.

**"Yeah, I can see that,"** the magi said. **"So how did it go? No trouble with the vampires, right?"** she asked.

**"Of course not,"** the chief said. **"I told them to let us through and they did just that,"** he spoke proud of how easy it was.**"Besides they looked too wounded to be do any fighting."**

Atlas cracked a cocky smile and boasted, **"Hah! That will teach those bloodsuckers for trying to mess with me and Henry."**

The chief agreed and said, **"I'm pretty sure they won't try to harm you again. Well just as long as you stay out of their lair, that is."**

Atlas looked down at the boy and asked, **"So Henry, are you ready to go?"**

**"Yes, I am,"** he said. Then he looked to the ground nervously and continued, **"But I'm worried that my sister will whack me for being late."**

**"Then I'll hit her back to see how she likes it,"** the magi said with her tail swishing to and fro as if she was itching to whip a certain abusive girl.

**"Yeah... uh... don't it, please,"** Henry said, disagreeing with her idea. **"I know she doesn't like me, but she's still my sister. And I would never want to see her hurt."  
**  
**"Alright fine, I won't do it," **sighed Atlas who stopped moving her tail. **"But still you don't need to take all that pain your sister gives you. You got to learn to stand up for yourself, otherwise she'll just keep giving you the frying pan," **she advised.

**"Well okay,"** the boy said.

**"Good, now let's get back to the house now,"** the magi said. She pictured Henry's house and yard in her mind before she cast her teleportation spell to warp herself and the boy to there.

* * *

Henry was surprised to see that Yukki didn't seem too taken aback by the news of the grocery store no longer being able to support frozen desserts. That was because the hatchlings had already told her. Yukki decided to make up for her displeasure by dragging her brother to her room and make him do something humiliating. The Firestar sisters pressed their ears closely to the white wooden door to hear what was going on inside. There were sounds of movement going back and forth, dropping soft things on the floor, and some shuffling that they couldn't make out exactly. They could hear the boy whining, **"Come on, sis, I don't want to do this again!"**

Yukki ignore her brother's protest and said, **"Shut up, baka! We just lost ice cream forever, so now I need something fun to do. And that's where you come in. So stay still an let me dress you up." **A zipping sound was heard.

Henry replied unhappily, **"Well dressing me up as a princess isn't exactly fun, you know."**

Danielle looked to her sister and asked, **"What's a pwincess?"**

Kylie shrugged, shook her head, and answered, **"I dun know."**

After a short few minutes, the hatchlings heard footsteps coming towards the door and then felt the door swinging away from them. They looked up to Yukki, who looked surprised to see them, **"Oh, I didn't know you guys were here,"** she said before smiling afterwards. **"Well doesn't matter, because I was going to let you see my brother in a dress."** She turned to the side and told, **"Oh Henriette, get over here!"**

The sisters glanced to each other confused as to who the new stranger in here was. **"Who's Henwiette?"** asked Danielle.

The Henriette person, who was Henry's feminine alter ego, did what his sister commanded of him and showed his glamorous new self to the hatchlings. His blonde hair looked like it had grown really fast to the point where it reached his chest. On the top of his head was a silver tiara adorned with a few rubies. He wore long white silky gloves and a glittering pink dress with magenta ribbons. His pink lips were now a crimson red color. Henry sighed and put a hand to his face. He said to himself, **"This is so embarrassing."**

The hatchling didn't seem to think so and were instead, fascinated by his appearance. Danielle commented, **"Henwy, you look pwetty!"**

The girl nodded and said, **"I know, doesn't he?"** She grinned and snickered at her brother. **"I could dress him up in another cute outfit if you want."**

Henry shook his head hard at the sisters, gesturing them not to make this dress-up game go any further. But they ignored his plea as Kylie replied enthusiasm for another beautiful display, **"Yay, I wan to see him in another dwess!"**

**"Me too!"** the whiptail said.

**"Okay then,"** Yukki said as her brother dropped his mouth open in displeasure and betrayal. She grabbed him by the back of the dress and said, **"Come on, Henriette. Let's put you in a maid outfit this time."** She dragged him into her room as the boy cried a long "no". Then the door was closed and the outfit change took place. Pretty soon, Yukki brought the boy out in new apparels consisting of a black dress, white stockings, black dress shoes, white gloves, a white Victorian maid hat, and a white apron. His hair seemed to have gotten short again for some reason. **"So what do you think?"** the girl asked.

The sisters squealed and Danielle answered, **"He's cute!" **The balloon hatchling agreed.

The girl said, **"I know, right? He looks so kawaii in these outfits!"**

Henry, not amused, dully murmured, **"Yeah kawaii, sure."**

Yukki took her brother back into the room and said, **"Alright Henriette, let's dress you some more."** So Henry was dressed up in a bikini, a geisha girl outfit, a fairy costume, a catgirl costume, a foxgirl costume, and other effeminate clothes. Each time he was earned praising comments from the sisters.

Atlas, who had stayed outside to sleep for the night, could hear her nieces's joyful cheers. _'Sounds like they're having a good time. It's nice that they have friends to hang out with, if only temporary,'_ she thought. The Firestars would live with them, but Atlas knew that they couldn't stay here in the Northeast region. Safety for the nieces came first before friends. Tomorrow morning, they would have to leave to travel again after breakfast.

* * *

By the end of the day, the dragon village was finished being built and all the traps were set. Aeolus, the one who took part in the Spell's invention, was offered the second best cave in the village, since the leader already took the best one. The disaster dragon gladly took the cave and went to sleep in it tonight.

* * *

When the people went back to the city, Kathia was moved into a hospital for better recovery. She laid on the bed with an IV attached to her bloodstream for support. All day, she had thought about how her battle would have been much easier and that she wouldn't be in this mess if she had magic powers like those mages. _'I have got to find a way to learn magic. Maybe there's a school for that somewhere,'_ she thought. Tomorrow, she was going to start learning before she would ever hunt again.

* * *

**Author's Note:** In the RP, the grocery store was in Windfall and didn't have a fight against a vampire dragon. But since that wouldn't make sense with how far Atlas traveled, I changed it to be in another city that got destroyed. Also in the RP, Frostfire was only flying over Windfall and leaving a mark of snow there for some unknown reason (she only had a brief appearance with only two posts).

Frostfire (c) AuraX13


	11. To Exterminate the Threat

**Chapter 10: To Exterminate the Threat**

The next morning, Atlas had went out to get some breakfast for herself, her nieces, and the human siblings. She returned to Henry's residence with the apples and killed animals to make up for the frozen foods and overnight-spoiled milk that the siblings were unable to turn into breakfast. The magi gave the apples to Kylie, who ate them and was kind enough to share some with the teens. Atlas had to tear the fur off the animals and cook them with fire magic after Yukki told her that they couldn't eat the meat like this. After everyone had eaten their breakfast, the Firestars shared their farewells with the siblings. **"Good bye, Henry. Good bye, Yukki. You all take care now, alright?"** Atlas said to them.

Yukki replied cheerfully, **"We will! Good luck on your journey; we hope you all get there!"**

**"That we will,"** the dragoness promised them. She took off into the air and flew away.

After the family disappeared into the distance, Yukki turned to her brother and said with a sly smile, **"You know, now that they're no longer here, I can get to do whatever I want."**

Henry got curious and asked, **"And what would that be?"**

**"THIS!"** the sister yelled as she whipped out her frying pan and pounded her brother on the head.

A bump formed on top of the boy's skull and his head felt dizzy with pain. **"Owww, what what that for?"** he asked.

The girl scolded, **"That was for being late with the errands last night. Do you know how worried I was? Well do you, baka?!"**

**"Uh... really worried?"** Henry guessed nervously.

**"Exactly!"** Yukki yelled before she whacked him again.

* * *

Aeolus and the other village dragons woke up and went on with their business. The disaster dragon left the village to go hunting for some breakfast. He trekked through the woods, looking out for scents of live prey that he may find. He encountered some brown brocket deer eating some leaves off the shrubs. The dragon stood still as he opened his mouth to charge up lightning into his breath. The animals sensed his presence at the last second and tried to turn away for a quick get away, but the disaster dragon blew out his breath and zapped three of the deers. The creatures' hearts stopped and they dropped dead onto the ground. Aeolus went over to his prey and ate them. Aeolus finished eating his deer when an arrow flew by and missed his head by an inch. The disaster dragon lifted his head up and turned his head around to the arrow stuck on the tree. The next arrow came and struck him on the side of the neck, but fortunately, not too deep to touch his wind pipe. Aeolus let out a snarl and blew lightning at the direction of where the arrows came from. The trees were set on fire and chipped when struck by the bolts. The man behind the attack was shocked and he let out a painful scream before dropping on the ground. Aeolus looked at the man and noticed his weapons; a bow and a sword. _'So it is true; the humans have resorted to non-mechanical weapons. That means...'_ he thought.

Then more arrows shot out and struck the dragon on the side. Aeolus growled and bared his teeth before deciding to kill the hidden hunters. He slammed his foot on the ground and shook the earth with his earthquake magic. The humans lost their balance and the trees fell on top of them, crushing their bodies and bones.

The disaster dragon looked down at the dead hunters and thought, _'If the humans are getting other ways to persecute dragons. That means the threat isn't over.'_ There was no doubt in mind that the ever-so-clever and greedy humans would find new ways to hunt and recapture their slaves to make up for loss of their advanced technology. As long as the dragons' nemesis lived, no one would be safe. There was only one way to prevent the nightmares from ever happening again: annihilate the human race. To do just that, Aeolus would need to learn their ways and weaknesses fast, so that he and the other dragons can kill them first before anything happens to his race. The dragon went to back to his village to seek help for his reconnaissance mission.

Aeolus walked down through the tunnels to get to the cave where Doubloon the village chief lived. Other dragons saw the arrow wounds on him and one of them asked, **"What happened to you?"**

The disaster dragon replied in a gruff tone, **"Humans."** Aeolus paused for a short bit as the dragons went silent in shock and waited for what else their neighbor had to say. **"They came at me with arrows as soon as I was finished eating. It seems like after all that has happened last night; they won't let go of their greed for slaves and power,"** he continued.

A terrae dragon said broodily, **"Oh bummer, that means we still have to fight for our lives. Persistent little bastards."**

A scared pink dragoness said, **"What are we going to do? I don't want to be made a slave again. I've already suffered enough for a life time."**

**"We're going to stamp out every single scum who walks on two legs and wears clothes,"** Aeolus answered, telling everyone of his plan.

The dragons looked at him intently and a dark green-blue dragon asked, **"W-we are?"**

The terrae dragon asked, "**But how? They've made new weapons and have magic now. How do we fight them after they keep beating us every single time?"**

Aeolus explained, **"We pull a blitzkrieg on the humans; we strike them hard and fast before they can fully master their new found skills. But to do it successfully without the casualties of being surprised, we must take the stealthiest dragons we have and use them to spy on the humans for any weaknesses we'll use against them. Now if you'll excuse me, I have the chief to go see so that I can discuss the plan and strategy."** He resumed his walk as the dragons let him through to the chieftain's cave.

The disaster dragon entered the chief's cave and told him about his encounter with the humans and say that this was a sign that they needed to take immediate action against them. **"I see, so a preemptive strike right now should to put an end to this threat if we want to live in peace for the rest of our lives,"** said Doubloon.

**"Well we could do that, but we might put ourselves at risk this way should the humans use surprising tactics that could catch us off guard. I propose send dragon with powers and skills in stealth to spy on the humans and learn everything they can, so that we can be better prepared for the assault,"** said Aeolus.

**"Very well then, I'll call all dragons to meeting cave so that we can round up our potential spies,"** said Doubloon, liking the idea. He telepathically called all the dragons to come into the largest cave for an assembly. The two waited for a few minutes while a healer dragon worked his magic on closing the disaster's wounds. Soon, everyone was here. The chief cleared his voice and announced, **"May I have your attention, everyone? Aeolus here has come across some humans who attacked him with their newest weapons. We've all heard rumors yesterday that these fiends have quickly switched to non-mechanical weapons and magic to make up for what they've lost on the night of the Spell. Aeolus's wounds are proof that the rumors are the truth. So it has come to my attention that we as a species must exterminate the humans before they bring us back to the dark ages that we never wish to live again."** He paused for a second to catch his breath before he resumed speaking, **"Aeolus has come to me with a plan to do a reconnaissance first before we go out and demolish the two-legged monsters."** He looked to the green dragon and said, **"I'll let you do the honors of giving us your plan in detail, Aeolus."**

Aeolus bowed his head shortly and replied, **"Thanks, chieftain."** He took the leader's spot on the high rocky platform and said, **"Now for this reconnaissance mission to work, we need dragons who are really good at sneaking around, dragons who can camouflage, dragons who with invisibility spells, and dragons who can disguise themselves to be our spies. These spies will gather information on the humans such as what kind of weapons and magic they're using, the layout of their new home, and any weaknesses we can use against them. The spies will then send info to the chieftain, me, and other strategists to make plans for the assault that will wipe the humans off the face of Terra. Now anyone who wants to volunteer as a spy, please rise and stand over there."** He pointed to the empty space on the side of the platform. Ten dragons went onto the platform to volunteer themselves as spies.

Five more dragons offered themselves up to be spies. When no more dragons got onto the platform, Aeolus looked at the crowd and asked, **"Does anyone else want to help? Yes? No?"** No one responded nor went stood up to walk. Coming to a confirmation that they had all the spies needed, the disaster dragon said, **"So then, it looks like we have enough spies for this mission. These dragons will go outside and search for the humans' home. But for this mission to go well, they should keep to the ground at all times, unless they can somehow hide themselves in the air without their shadows showing on ground. Large dragons should stay outside the base and listen from a distance, while the small ones like this wasp pygmy we see here will infiltrate their nest to gather more information. That's all the details of my plan. Chief Doubloon, will you resume speaking?"**

The yellowish-brown dragon said, **"Aeolus has now given us the plan that will lead us to thwart the humans. I now commence the reconnaissance to start immediately. All spies, go out and search for the humans."** The spies walked out of the cave and made their way out of the village to the outdoors. **"Also, I'll ask all dragons to stay inside for now until we have destroyed the humans and their new home. This meeting is now over."** The crowd disperse and went back to their caves and business. Doubloon looked over at Aeolus and said, **"You know, we should share our ideas with the other dragons outside our village."**

**"That, I plan to do,"** said Aeolus. The two used their telepathy to share the strategy with the other dragons they knew and told them to pass the message on to their friends, family, and other villages/clans.

* * *

A while later, the spies spotted the human village in sight down the slope. **"There it is, boys. The hairless demons' nest and look, it's even smaller than their original habitat,"** said a dark brown dragon looking over at the camp.

The blue-striped black dragon giggled and said, **"Heh heh, this will be easy. We don't even need to spy. We should get all of us to go down and demolish the place."**

The dark brown dragon shot him a stern look and said, **"Hey remember what that Aeolus guy said, the humans might have devastating tricks up their sleeves. So follow the plan and learn everything about those two-legged rats."** Then he looked at the night magi and said, **"Eitri, use that magi of yours and make us all invisible."** Eitri cast his magic on all the dragons and made them invisible to all, except themselves. **"Alright, let's go."** The spies went up to the village and stayed at the edge, while the pygmies went inside for closer investigation.

The spies observed everything the humans did inside the village and searched each tent. They saw that the humans were building up walls made of trees they cut down to protect themselves against outside threats; it seems like they haven't covered the whole village yet. The wasp pygmy flew over to the training area where the men where learning how to use swords and bows. Thankfully, nobody seemed to be learning any magic spells. After having obtained all the info they got, the spies went back to their village to give their report.

* * *

Doubloon listened to everything the spies had seen and replied, **"I see. Very well then, you're dismissed."** The spies left the room to let the council discuss phase 2 of the plan. **"It sounds like we won't be breaking a sweat wiping out the humans. All we need for this assault is to have our super-powered dragons eliminate their warriors and the weaker dragons kill off the rest of them."**

Aeolus came up with an alternative plan, **"Or I could conjure a tornado and demolish the village. The other dragons will stay on the ground outside and pick off any survivors who come their way. Those in the air can blow their breaths and spells at the tornado to kill the humans faster."**

**"Hmm..."** The chief thought about the plan and said, **"Not a bad idea. Everyone, what do you think?"**

**"I guess that sounds good,"** said one dragon.

Another dragon spoke his reason, **"It would save us the trouble of going inside the village and getting ourselves hurt by these dragon slayers."** Everyone else agreed.

**"Very well then, we shall go with Aeolus's plan,"** said Doubloon. **"I will call the all available fighters for them to hear it out."** The council followed their chief to the meeting room. The light brown dragon spoke telepathically to all of his villagers,_'Everyone, we have come up with a strategy to exterminate the humans. All those who can and are willing to fight must meet us at the meeting cave to hear out our plan.'_

The council watched the many dragons enter the assembly cave, one by one, until there were no other volunteers for the mission. Doubloon explained the plan to them and finished off by saying, **"And that's how we will destroy them. As your leader, I will go with you all to carry out the assault as planned. Now do we have any questions before we go out?"** He waited for a minute to hear what one of the dragons have to say, but silence was all he got. **"Very well then; move out!" **The chief flew over the crowd and landed at the exit to take lead as they got up to leave the village.

The horde arrived at their destination and watched the human village from afar. The dragon soldiers spread out to surround the outskirts. After a while, Doubloon telepathically asked,_'Is everyone in position?'_

_'We're ready, chief,'_ the dragons replied.

_'Good!'_ the chief said and nodded. He looked to the disaster dragon next to him and said, **"Now, Aeolus!"** The disaster used his power to bring together high and low air pressures and summoned a tornado right at the heart of the camp. The humans looked up to the tornado that suddenly appeared in their camp and quickly began to panic as they tried to run away from the huge spiraling vortex. But the people were sucked up into the tornado, along with the tents, equipment, and other possessions torn from the ground. Couples, friends, cousins, parents & children were all separated from one another; having no one to hold on to through this destruction. Screams filled the air before they were drowned out by being inside the loud roaring of the tornado. The few refugees that managed to make it far out of the campsite were then put to death by the fiery breaths, jaws, and magic spells of the dragons. Aeolus moved the tornado a little around, so that it could pick up the tents that it hasn't sucked yet.

When the whole of the village seemed to be destroyed, Doubloon issued the orders to his aerial attackers, _'Breathe out at the tornado now!'_ The dragons flew up into the sky and blew out their breathes of various elements at the tornado to burn, electrify, and obliterate the humans. The addition of the objects and appliances colliding with the humans did more damage to them. Eitri used his magic to combine his comrades' breaths with the tornado to create a fiery, electric tornado to exterminate every single living thing inside as well as destroying the objects with them.

After a while of assault, Aeolus dispelled the tornado and let all the bodies and objects hit the ground from a very high height; killing whoever was left of the refugees. Doubloon used his telepathy to speak to all dragons, _'Everyone, don't think that Aeolus's killing move is a guaranteed hit that all the humans are dead. I want each and every one of you to scout the village and make sure that all the humans who lived here are indeed dead. I don't want there to be a survivor, so that he or she can live to tell the other humans what happened, so that they can be more prepared to fight our kind off.'_ The dragon scouted the campsite and the outskirts around it to check the bodies and make sure they weren't breathing. When they made sure that every single human was dead, the horde went home to tell their village that the humans' refugee camp was destroyed.

* * *

After the horde returned home, the dragons who stayed behind, went up to the fighters and asked questions like "Did you kill all the humans?", "Did anybody get hurt?", and "How did it go?" The fighters answered with yes's, no's, and other responses to specific questions.

Doubloon raised his voice to talk over the crowd and spoke, **"Fellow dragons, the attack went well as planned and the humans' nest is no more! And the best part is, there were no casualties within the horde."** The dragons roared out cheers for the perfect success. The chief looked to the night magi next to him and said, **"Relay this message to the rest of village."** The night magi did and sent the same words via telepathy. **"Tonight we can all sleep well without any fear of being hunted."**

Aeolus felt pride that his plan had worked like a charm. He would be using this tactic again for each human community until there came a time when he would need better strategy. _'Today, the village; tomorrow, the world,'_ he thought as his red eyes glared with a desire for revenge.

Bam and a few of his friends found his cousin and he said, **"Look guys, there he is! Let's go hang out with him."** They came up beside the disaster dragon and the royal blue patted him on the back, earning him his cousin's attention. **"Wow Aeolus, you're a genius! How did you come up with a plan like that?"** he asked smiling with admiration.

A longhorn dragon on the other side asked, **"Yeah man. I bet you must have a big brain to make that kind of plan."**

Aeolus explained frankly, **"It took brains and critical thinking to come up with this plan. I had to make sure that every risk in the attack was reduced or removed as possible and come up with the smartest and efficient ways to kill the humans. Besides, the humans were still green in their new ways. They most likely never would have survived the attack. So you could say it was, what the humans call it, a piece of cake."**

The dragon celebrated the victory with the food and prey they caught from the forest and songs. It was the first party that Aeolus and Bam had enjoyed in a long time since the raid at the family reunion about five centuries ago.

* * *

A lone man who had witnessed the destruction of his refugee camp from afar the whole time after his hunt in the woods, shed some tears for the loss of his friends and family whom he would never see again, never talk to again, or even hug and kiss again. The man looked at the campsite one last time before he put down his binoculars and turned to leave. Everything he held dear was lost to him and all that was left was sorrow and despair. The man sat against the tree and cried to himself. After a little while, he got up and traveled through the forest to find another refugee camp, which he made it to after a few hours later. He told the people there about the fate of his camp and what the dragons did to destroy it. The people became alarmed as they built up walls of lumber to protect their home from wingless dragons and made more weapons to fend themselves from future attacks.

* * *

**Author's Note:** That last part was a bit depressing. I kind of feel sorry for the fellow. But hey, you gotta do what you gotta do to build up the storyline.

Eitri (c) me


	12. A Beginner's Guide to Magic and Archery

**Chapter 11: A Beginner's Guide to Magic and Archery**

Thanks to white dragon magic, Kathia was released from the hospital and was feeling better than yesterday. But she was not ready to go back to dragon-hunting yet, because she needed to a better weapon to combat the beasts more efficiently. That better weapon was magic. The redhead went outside to find dragons reshaping the city's former self into what looked like a medieval town. Tall buildings were taken down in size to look like typical-looking middle age shops. The only largest thing she could see this mockery of a city was big fat castle. Light poles reverted back into their retro appearances. Roads that were once wide with multiple lanes had now been reduced and narrowed down to two or three lanes; even the traffic lights were gone as well, so the cars had to be directed by the traffic guard. These two things together had slowed down the traffic. The pedestrians and dragons with their huge sizes trying to walk across, certainly did not help the situation.

Some of the humans didn't seem to mind the change, but Kathia took it personally as an insult. It felt like the dragons were mocking the human race and telling them that they should live back in the middle ages, now that they had no tech to control the dragons with. Not only that, if the dragons felt like rebuilding the city would make up for all the human lives lost, then they were dead wrong. Nothing they did would ever bring back her family. **"Grrr! Damn lizards! If I could fight, I would stab one of those beasts right now,"** she murmured to herself angrily. She walked off to go look for a mage who would teach her some magic. But after walking through two streets, the girl encountered a bookstore with a poster at the window advertising the most recent kind of books, spell books. Now having another and more convenient way to learn magic, she smiled and said to herself, **"You know what? I don't even need anyone's help. I can just get a tome and teach myself magic."** With that, she went into the bookstore and went to the section where the magic books were displayed. She took up the beginner's guide since she was pretty much inexperience at using magic, herself. Then she went to the cashier and purchased the book. Now having a list of magical weapons to use against dragons, Kathia left the bookstore and went to go look for a place where she can begin practicing her spell. **"Now where would I want to go?"** she asked herself.

Suddenly, she was slammed into from behind by another person. The tome almost jumped off her arm, but the girl managed to keep a firm hold on her book. As she recovered from the painful surprise, that person yelled, **"Hey watch it!"**

The redhead turned around with an equally angry look on her face and yelled, **"Me?! Why don't YOU watch where you're going? You're the one who walked into me from behind. What are you, blind?"** No way was she at fault here because of this angry guy's action.

The girl's retort only served to piss the tall, muscular black man off more than he already was. **"No but you must be dumb to be just standing in the middle of the bloody street,"** he snapped again.

**"What?!"** Kathia screamed angrily at the insult.

Then another man came to her defense by telling the black guy, **"Hey guy the lady's right; you bumped into her. So let's all just-"**

**"Cram it this ain't your business,"** the man continued to lash out. But immediately, he began to calm down and his expression of anger changed to that of regret. He took a breath and made an apology, **"Sorry, I'm just frustrated."**

Kathia forgave the guy and made a guess on what was going through his mind. **"So you had a bad day, eh? I don't suppose you're just as mad as I am about these blasted dragons taking over our city,"** she said with a hand on her hip. It only made sense, because earlier, she had walked by a couple of people in the bookstore murmuring their distrust of the dragons remodeling their city after their rampage and killing people.

The man replied in a hushed one, **"Tch! Got that right. I don't like it. First they burn our homes to the ground and now we're supposed to trust them? They're just trying to do to us what we did to them. Everyone's just too blind to see it."**

Kathia nodded in agreement about the seemingly ignorance of the human citizens. She was about to say "Yeah, if you ask me, we should all grab whatever weapon we have and chase them out of our city. They don't deserve to live alongside us after what they did!" But before any one of those words would come out, the man heaved a disappointed sigh and asked, **"Look sorry bout just now but do you know where I can find a place that sells whetstones and fetching?"**

The girl answered, **"****I don't know; beats me. It seems like the whole city's been rearranged since the reconstruction. The familiar places I go to don't seem to be there anyone. They're probably somewhere else now."** Then she muttered her annoyance, **"****Damn those dragons."** She spoke again in her normal volume, **"****We can go look around for it, if you want."**

The man nodded at the offer. **"Sounds like a plan."**

Suddenly the sky grew dark with storm clouds hanging over Windfall and rain started to fall, wetting all the people outside who were unprepared for the abrupt weather change. **"Oh shoot!"** Kathia cried as she hastily held the spell book upside down and tightly to herself to avoid getting the pages soaked before she could read them. **"Come on, let's get inside!"** she said as she rushed back to the bookstore with the man following after her to take shelter inside. Her clothes, skin, and hair had been pelted with raindrops, which Kathia considered to be an annoyance as she didn't like being wet unless she was swimming or washing. She stayed inside the building and waited for the thunder storm to stop. Pretty soon, it stopped, but then it went back to drizzling and gradually increase to harder rain. The girl sighed and said, **"It looks like it's going to take a while before the rain stops."**

But in the meantime, this would give Kathia time to read her spell book. She left the man's side and stood by an empty aisle and opened her book to the first pages. She skipped the copyright section and started off with the introduction to magic. Concentration was the key to channeling magic energy and some spells required intense emotions to be stronger. Spells should also be practiced often for the user to remember the spells and master them. After reading the introductory, the book says for the reader to start off with the Dream Recall spell as it was one of the easiest to learn. This spell was a must as it will teach her about herself as well as lead the reader into a more advance spell like the Astral Projection spell later down the line. Kathia went to the next page to learn about the Dream Recall. To do this spell, she would have to cast it at night right before she goes to bed and falls asleep. That way she can remember her dreams a lot better than she did normally when she would forget and have no memory what she had last night.

Since this was a spell for nighttime, Kathia decided to save this spell for later and go on to the next spell in the beginner's section; the Familiar Spell. The Familiar Spell involved the spell-caster choosing a familiar person or animal and casting the spell to create a bond between the two. But in order for the spell to work, there had to be 2 requirements: 1) the wizard had to be acquainted with the target and 2) neither the wizard nor the target must hold any dislike for the other. That meant the spell couldn't be used on enemies. The familiar spell can be cast repeatedly to cement a stronger bond of friendship, but not romantic love; there were love spells for that. Kathia thought about testing out the familiar spell, but she had no idea where her friends and servants were or whether they were still alive or not. She could cast it on the black guy, but forming a bond with an unknown stranger might not be the best idea. Again, Kathia would have to skip this spell for the third one that's next in the book.

As she was deeply concentrated on the book, the man came up to her to see what she was reading. **"There wouldn't happen to be something in there for making homing arrows would there?"** he said teasing a little. **"Better yet, summoning fletching would be nice,"** he added with a chuckle.

The girl smiled in a way that almost made her look like she was giggling and said, **"Well I don't know. I haven't gotten this far ahead yet. I'm just new to this whole wizarding thing."** Then she thought, _'A homing arrows spell would be nice! Something like that would sure be vital to my hunts.'_

**"Just starting eh? Well Wizardry was never really my thing. I like to do things with my own two hands. When things aren't working out I find little works better than a good ol' cuff to the head,"** he said pursuing the joke a little farther seeing her smile. **"I've seen you flip through a couple pages now. You looking for something in particular?"** he asked walking over to Kathia and then leaning against the books shelf again once there.

Kathia laughed for a bit before answered, **"Yeah, I'm looking for spells that would help me kill those dragons. I like to learn them right away, but the book says that I have to start with beginner spells first so that my body can get used to the magic energy that's building up inside me. If I go with the big guns first, I'll just get a stroke."** And she couldn't have that happening to her before her life's goal of revenge against the entire species of dragons.

**"While I'm not one for magic I'd say do what the book says,"** the man stated idly as he plucked a straight branch from his quiver and began peeling the bark from it placing the peeled bark back into the quiver. **"Still..."** he added with a little more intent and notably quieter so that only Kathia could hear. **"If it's practice you need then I think I can help out. I could do with a little practice myself to be honest. And what better place than here in the city?"** he suggested pausing in his scraping and peeling to regard Kathia and read her reaction.

**"If that makes us better dragon hunters, then yeah,"** replied Kathia. Then she thought she might have made a mistake on the first assumption about the man being a dragon slayer himself. For all she knew, he might be just an animal hunter or a guy who just does archery as a hobby. **"That is... if you are one,"** she added. If they were going to practice magic, then they were going to need some sort of good place like a hideout or a wide open place in the city with little to no people. Magic, as shown by dragons, can be a dangerous weapon to use.

**"I am indeed, but it would be best if we talked somewhere else. Quite frankly I'm not inclined to risk eavesdroppers,"** he said keeping the hushed tone.

**"Right,"** Kathia agreed and spoke quietly. **"We don't know who's going to turn us in to those blasted monsters."**

The man then placed the shaft he had stripped back into the quiver. **"So..."** he said speaking clearly now. **"Lets get under way. We need to find you a place to practice magic where you won't hurt anyone by accident. We also need to find fletching and arrow heads for me so I can get back to hunting. Neither of those is going to happen if we're hiding out in this book store,"** he said with a smile on his face.

The girl replied, **"Right, let's get of here."** Then they walked to the glassy double doors and saw that the rain had stopped sooner than expected. The air smelled of moisture when they stepped outside to the stony streets.

As they walked, Kathia looked to the man and asked, **"So since we're going to be hanging out for a while. I want to know what's your name."**

The man answered with a smile, **"You can call me Jason. What about you? You mind telling me your name?"**

**"Kathia,"** she answered.

**"Kathia," **Jason repeated the name. **"What a nice name for a pretty girl like you."**

The girl enjoyed the compliment and replied, **"Why thank you. I think it's a nice name, too."** The redhead kept her eyes out for any stores selling the items the archers needed for his hunts. She passed a barber shop, a women's salon, a bakery, a Domininan market, and a... Kathia's face contorted into a disapproving glare when she saw a spa for dragons. **"Hmph! As if I need the 'dragons are people' crap rubbed in my face,"** she said bitterly. Even Jason was upset about this as he huffed at the spa. To them it was practically devil worship. Well say goodbye to pelt farms that produced the best clothing, gear, and weapons; city developments made from dragon labor; and the tasty dragon meat and eggs. Thinking of food; Kathia had the idea to check the grocery stores later to see if the food made from dragons were still on sale. But for all she knew, the dragons might have banned them and threw them out away. Still, it wouldn't hurt to check later after practice and shopping.

Soon, the duo came to a store selling fletching and arrows. **"Look Jason, there it is!"** she said.

**"Finally some good news,"** the man said, relieved to see a store selling the materials he needed. **"Come on,"** Jason said taking the lead and heading inside. Instead of looking around they made straight for the counter. **"I need two dozen arrowheads and enough fletching for two dozen arrows,"** he said to the shop owner. The clerk behind the counter nodded and went to get the man his order.

While Jason was getting the items he needed, the girl took a look around to see what the store had to offer. There were all kinds of equipment such as bows, knives, traps, fishing tools, game calls, hunting magazines, guns, and ammunition. The last two were useless as of now, but some of the other stuff may be of use to Kathia. There were the dragon call, dragon baits, protective helmet, and camo wear; tools which would be efficient for her hunts. She was quite thankful that the dragon officers haven't confiscated the stuff yet. If she had money on her, then she would be able to buy these items right now. But her parents' credit cards were at home and it was going to take quite a while walking from the store to there and back to here again.

Jason seemed to have noticed the stuff as well as he said, **"That camo looks handy."**

Kathia agreed and said, **"Yeah, I bet we could blend in and kill those lizards without them knowing."**

The clerk returned with the order he brought. **"Here ya go,"** he said.

Jason nodded and replied, **"Thanks."** The clerk cleared his throat and the hunter paid the man for the arrowheads and fletching, then dumped both into his quiver. He eyed the weapons on the wall and asked,**"How much for the guns and ammo?"**

The old man looked at the same objects and said, **"That lot? Heh, you can have em. Useless junk now anyways. I was just gonna chuck em but if you want them they're yours, take as much as ye like."**

The hunter smiled and said, **"Thanks. Kathia think you can grab a couple guns? I'll get the ammunition."** He made his way over to the ammo, and began collecting it up.

The girl complied, but with curiosity. **"Okay, but why do we need guns away? They can't shoot anymore,"** she asked. She went to the gun shelf and picked up two boxes with rifles in them.

Jason answered, **"We might be able to do something with the powder. We could probably sell the metal, too."**

**"Like what? What are we going to do with the gunpowder?"** asked Kathia.

The hunter said, **"We can use them to blow up stuff. You know? Ka-boom!"**

**"Oh, that's cool."** The girl had forgotten that fact about gunpowder. It was a good thing that the black man reminded her about that.

**"And we can even use it as medicine,"** said Jason, smiling.

The redhead found the suggestion very weird. Whenever she thought of gunpowder, she always imagined people using that stuff to fire and shoot. But gunpowder as a medicine? How was he going to pull that off? Raising her brow in confusion, she asked,**"Medicine?"**

The hunter nodded and replied, **"Yeah! It may sound funny to you; but trust me, it ain't just weapon to be used. The ancient Haniyese used that stuff to cure sores and ringworms. It even keeps away the damp and plague."**

The girl was surprised in a good way to hear all that. **"Wow, I never knew that. I'm impressed!"** she said as she grabbed the third box.

The two carried the stuff over to the counter, where Jason paid for them. The clerk gave him back his change and said,**"Thanks fer shopping, buddy! Hope I see ya again next time."**

As the duo carried the stuff and headed to the door, Jason looked back at the clerk and promised, **"You will, don't worry."**

Kathia looked back as well and said, **"And I will be there, too."** She intended to get the equipment she had her eyes on, the next time she returned. They went out the door and walked all the way to the parking lot. The place was smaller than it used to be with cars having completely filled up the spaces left and right, leaving those who wanted to stop and go shopping to look somewhere else for a parking space. The two went to a dark green minivan and Jason took out his car keys to push the bottom-most button on the little control. The trunk opened its lid up and the car's musty smell came out and touched the girl's nostrils. They put the guns and ammo into the wide empty space of the trunk and closed it back.

After that, they went on a search for the perfect place to use magic. They saw an empty public basketball court and Jason pointed it to it. **"Hey, that looks like a good place. Want to go there?"** he asked.

**"Sure, why not?"** Kathia replied. They set foot into the place and Kathia opened up the tome to the page she was last at. She turned it over and discovered the calming aura spell. It was a spell that soothed the user's emotions to the point where they were relaxed and tranquil. The girl followed the instructions to this spell and let her mind tap into her inner magic energy. She felt nothing rising as there was a heavy blockage in the way of her channel. To remove it and gain the permanent ability to use magic, she had to remain in her magic trying state and chant, **"Unluk magisto!"** Just like a charm, the blockage was gone and Kathia now had access to her spells. She tried the calming aura spell again and channeled her magic energy to her mind, while trying to think relaxing thoughts. Gradually over a minute, she became serene as a swan.

Jason looked at her, trying hard to find something. **"Hey Kathia, is that spell of yours working or what? Because I can't see a thing happening," **he asked.

The girl explained to him, **"That's because this spell uses an invisible aura to help keep me calm. You're not supposed to see it."**

The hunter looked curiously and asked, **"And what spell is that?"**

The girl showed the page to him and pointed to the spell's name. **"This one,"** she said.

**"Oh, I see,"** he said with a nod. **"It sounds like it'll be good for stress and all that."**

Kathia, who was glad about the spell's efficiency, replied, **"Yep! And I probably won't even need to go to a doctor or take a pill."** Turning back to the book, she went to the next page and found the Anti-Anxiety Chant. Basically, it involved her chanting a magic word over and over again to remove anxiety. When combined with the calming aura, the effects of the two would be greater. The girl gave this a go and chanted, **"Galini, galini, galini."** The girl felt nothing, even when she spoke the same word a few more times. Either because she did it wrong or because the calming aura was masking its effect; she'll never know. Then she discovered another spell called the plant-blessing spell, which repelled insects and ensured a healthy garden. She decided to try out her spell on the grass outside the court. Her hand hovered over the grass and glowed in an aura of light green. She let the magic seep into the green blades until the aura disappeared. Kathia thought she did the spell right, but she wanted to test it out one more time on a flowered area of grass where a bumblebee was flying around. She walked over there and blessed the patched. Immediately, the bee flew away from the flower it was pollinating. The spell had worked like a charm. The girl made a small smile; thought it may not be useful to her, she thought that this would be a good spell for her gardeners to use. That is if they were still alive.

Jason enjoyed seeing the little magic show the girl did and asked, **"So Kat, what's your next spell?"**

The girl turned to the next page and answered, **"The Book-Blessing Spell."** She read all of the instructions and explained, **"It's a spell that makes your book more endurable and long-lasting in good condition."**

**"Ooh, that sounds neat!" **said the impressed man. Then he asked, **"Are you going to try it out on that book of yours?"**

**"Of course, what do you think?"** said Kathia obviously. She closed the book and began to follow the steps she had memorized in her mind. After channeling her magic energy again, her hand glowed in a soft white aura. She touched the book and let the energy engulf it in the same aura. The aura stayed visible for a few seconds before it seeped into the spell book. Opening the book again, she went to the next pages. But most of the ones up the intermediate section required certain items that were needed for the spells and some of the spells were not at the appropriate time for Kathia to use, such as the Cure Headache Spell as the girl wasn't having a headache right now. So she went to practice the plant-blessing spell by casting onto multiple sections of grass. This went on for three minutes until she became tired from spending nearly all of her low amount of magic energy. The girl panted and put a hand on her chest, where the ache was felt. **"Whoa, I think I need a break from magic,"**she said to herself.

**"Sounds like you do. Come on, let's go sit over at the bench,"** said Jason. They went over to the bench and took a seat.

Kathia took her time to rest and thought about the hunter's arrows. She figured archery would be another thing that she should learn, in case her magic powers run out. **"Hey Jason."**

The man looked to her and asked, **"Yeah?"**

The girl asked, **"Can you teach me how to be an archer like you? I mean I got to learn everything if I want to be good dragon slayer."**

Jason nodded and said, **"Sure, I can! We'll go practice on that small tree over there, since the hoops are too high for me to get my arrows back."** They left the court and went to the dogwood tree and put some distance between them for a shooting line. He handed over his bow and quiver to the girl. After she puts the quiver on and armed herself, the hunter started to explain the basics of archery, **"Okay listen up! You might think archery is easy by just picking up a bow and shooting. But it takes a lot more than that and you're bound to fail if you don't follow what I say properly. So first thing's first, we got to get you into the right stance."** He checked which hand Kathia was holding the bow and saw that it was in the left hand, which meant that she would be shooting the arrows in her other hand. **"You're right-handed, right?"**

**"Yes I am,"** the girl replied.

**"Okay, put your left foot forward,"** instructed Jason. Kathia did put a step forward and waited to hear the next part, which the man said, **"Now put some space between your foot so that they're a shoulder width apart and don't forget to bring your right foot back, so you have an imaginary square between your legs."** The girl moved her right foot backwards and sideways until she was in what archers would call a "square stance". The hunter looked at her torso and saw that she was slouching a bit. Jason went to correct that, **"Now stand up straight and keep that chin of yours on the bow arm."**

Kathia straightened her torso up and tried to put her chin on top of her shoulder, but her neck hurt at the attempt and the highest her chin could reach was the side of the shoulder. **"Jason, I'm trying to put my head on my shoulder, but it won't reach,"** she spoke her trouble.

**"Well then, just keep it as close as possible. It doesn't have to be on the shoulder,"** said the hunter.

The girl relaxed her head and decided to leave it beside the shoulder. **"So what's next?"** she asked.

Jason said, **"You move your hips around so that they're tucked under the upper body and your lower back flat like a pancake."** Kathia turned her hips to the left, so that she was diagonal from the top left to the bottom right. **"Now lower your chest and ribs down to your stomach and push your shoulders down a bit,"** he said. After she did all that, the man smiled and nodded in content. **"There you go, now you're in perfect stance, kid! Now we move on to nocking."**

**"What is nocking?"** Kathia asked about the strange word.

The man explained, **"It's when you hold the arrow the bowstring. It's a shame that word's not used much."** People, who don't know much about archery or are just new to it, rarely used the word, or much less hear about it.

The girl made a slight nod and said, **"Yeah, I understand that."**

Jason went back to the subject on hand and said, **"But anyway, Kathia, I want you to take out an arrow out of the quiver and put it on the colored part of the string and the arrow rest."** Before Kathia could ask what an arrow rest was, the man answered for her, **"It's that's bulky part on the bow that sits in front of the colored part."** So the girl put the arrow there and let it touched the nocking point. **"Okay, now turn that arrow until the fletching is aligned with the string,"** he instructed. After this was done, the next step was, **"Now get your bow arm forward and keep your fingers hooked onto the string and fletching. Pull the string back to the side of your side. All the way until you see the tip of your index finger at the corner of your mouth."** The girl pulled the string back until she could barely see her fingers. **"And now for the last part. We're going to shoot at the tree's trunk,**" he said pointing at the dogwood tree. **"What you want to do is point the tip of the arrow at the target, so that it would fly there and hit it right where you want it to. But don't forget to line up the bowstring with the center of the bow's limbs, okay?"**

**"Alright, got ya!"** Kathia said. **"So can I shoot?"**

**"Yes you can,"** said Jason. The girl let go of the string and watched the arrow fly, hoping that it would hit the tree. It did; the arrow pierced the trunk and stood there. **"Good job!"** the man commented. **"Now let's see if you can hit its branches, too."**

Kathia grabbed another arrow and got ready to shoot with it. She moved her torso along with her bow, so that she was aiming for the branches on the left side. Once she had the arrow's point where she want it, she shoot it into the branch. But arrow managed to touch it, but unfortunately it slide through the branch's underside and left only a scratch. The girl murmured her disappointment with her miss, **"Dang!"**

Jason, however, wasn't; he knew that beginners may make mistakes on their first tries. **"Try again; you'll improve with each shot,"** he encouraged her. Kathia thought that her teacher was telling her to keep shooting at the tree until she ran out of arrows. So she went and did just that as she shot at various parts of the tree. Sometimes she hit it and other times she missed. In one of her attempts, she saw a robin flying in the sky. The girl decided to literally take a shot at the bird. She missed as the robin had been flying too fast for her arrow to reach in time. After the arrow fell down at the basketball court, the man let out a friendly laugh and said, **"You think you're ready for shoot things that move, huh?"**

The girl looked at him and replied casually, **"Hey, it was worth a try. I mean how else am I suppose to know if I good or not?"**

Jason reasoned with her, **"Yeah, but we ain't ready for moving targets. You still got to practice with the still ones first."**The man pointed to all the fallen arrows across them and continued, **"I've seen you miss a few times and I want you to be perfect at this before we move on the ones that move."**

**"Do I really have to?"** asked Kathia. She really wanted to learn how to shoot mobile targets right now, so that she could get closer to being a skilled dragon slayer.

**"Yes, you have to,"** Jason told her. Then he gestured her to continue. **"Now keep practicing or you won't be as good as I am,"** he said as he made a cheeky grin.

**"Fine, if you say so,"** said the girl. So she kept shooting at the tree until she ran out of arrows. Jason went to retrieve them all, so that he can give them back to her for more practice. After a little while later, Kathia's arms started to feel sore. They decided to take a rest until her arms would get better. In the meantime, the girl practiced her calming aura spells and anti-anxiety chants.

* * *

After a long day of training, along with some sword practice, it was now after sunset. Kathia and Jason went into his car and drove to the grocery store to see if they still have the delicious dragon meat and eggs in stock. As expected and much to their dismay, the Aquarians have banned such products from being sold in any store as they were deemed a barbaric in that it was the murder of dragons and their unborn. So they had to purchase the other needed groceries without them. Kathia accepted Jason's offer to take her home. So he drove through the city to look for her home. At first, Kathia had trouble pointing out the right directions the man needed to go as the once-familiar streets had been warped into a whole new world with different routes. The girl angrily cursed the dragons out for getting them lost.

Sometime later, Kathia had finally found a familiar place, albeit different in appearance, as she had known this street by heart. It was then that her directions started to become right and easier, thus enabling her to get to home. When they got to the mansion, the girl frowned at its makeover. The mansion's fancy and modern appearance has been turned to that of an old stony medieval fashion. _'How dare they turn my beautiful home into this ugly dump! I am so going to tear the place and remodel it later, but with magic of course,'_ she thought. Kathia may be a billionaire, but she didn't feel like hiring builders as they would cost money that she needed for college and other important stuff, and she also didn't want the help of dragons, too.

Jason interrupted her thoughts when he asked, **"So is this it? Your home, I mean."**

The girl answered in an annoyed tone, **"Oh yes... This is my home. This old-fashioned crap is my home."**

The man understood her disappointment and said, **"Wow... I feel for ya, girl. I'd be mad too, if I found out those monsters changed the inside of my home as well. And something tell me that I'm going to have a hard time finding my pad. I mean you know what happened tonight."**

**"I know, right?"** said Kathia agreeing with him. **"I totally hope one day I get to teach those dragons a lesson for changing our lives."**

**"Yeah, me too,"** the man said. **"Anyway, take care and good night, Kathia."** After the girl returned her farewell, the car drove away from her residence.

Kathia went to the front door of the mansion and knocked on it. She waited a minute for someone to answer until a middle-aged maid came and opened the door. **"Yes, who is it?"** she asked.

Glad to see her most trusted servant here, the girl smiled and said, **"Hello Mrs. Merryweather, I'm home!"**

Happy to see the girl she's always looked after from a young age, the maid and the girl embraced each other in a hug. **"Oh Kathia, I'm so glad you survived that horrid mess. I was afraid you and your mother might have died out there,"** said Mrs. Merryweather. Then she looked around for Mrs. Rittevon, but she was nowhere in sight. **"Where is your mother?"** she asked.

**"She's dead, Mrs. Merryweather,"** Kathia answered grimly.

Look of sorrow and pity swarmed over the maid's face as she let go of the girl and said, **"Oh Kathia, I-I'm so sorry..."**

**"It's alright, Mrs. Merryweather,"** said Kathia, stepping past her maid and going inside the mansion. **"The only ones who should be sorry for all this are those damned dragons. It's their fault why many people had to lose their families and their homes."** Her memories burned with the sorrow of the survivors from camp at yesterda and how she walked past some people saying that their original homes had been taken by others who got there first before they did. Shaking her fist, Kathia said, **"Those dragons are going to pay for this and I'll be the one who makes sure that they do in blood!"**

**"But Kathia!"** Mrs. Merryweather reasoned. **"There's many of them out there and only one of you; how do you plan on killing them all?"**

The girl turned around and showed her the spellbook, **"With magic of course, and some old weapons too."**

The maid's dark brown eyes ran from to the sheathed family sword resting on the girl's side and the shield, bow and quiver on her back. **"I see you're armed like a knight, dear. But you do know that Mayor Esteed has sold the city to dragons to make it illegal to slay them, right?"** she asked with disapproval in her tone for the mayor.

**"Yeah, I heard about it yesterday," **said Kathia, rolling her eyes. **"That stupid traitor,"** she whispered with contempt under her breath. She'll never vote for that man in the next election after what he just did. **"But don't worry, Mrs. Merryweather, they only said no killing inside the city. I bet they don't care what happens outside in the woods,"** she said.

**"Well you better be careful, because I don't want to lose you, too. You hear me?"** said the maid.

**"I know,"** said Kathia. Before she decided to make her way to her room, the girl asked, **"Hey my home wasn't taken by anybody was it?"** She had to make sure before she could get her lawyer and sue the thieves for stealing her mansion.

Mrs. Merryweather assured, **"Oh don't worry dear, I made sure nobody besides you stepped foot inside the mansion."**

**"Well good, that's exactly what I needed to hear. Thanks Mrs. Merryweather,"** said Kathia gratefully.

**"You're welcome, dear!"** the maid said and nodded.

Kathia went upstairs to the bathroom and took a bath. Then she went to her room and changed into her pajamas. She opened the spellbook and went to the page with the Dream Recall spell. The girl followed the methods to the spell and cast it before she went to bed.

* * *

Aeolus sat in his cave thinking about the attack on the refugee camp and analyzing how well it went. His tornado alone had done a great deal of damage to both the humans' home and population. The survivors that had fled the camp were few in number before they got killed by the other dragons. It seems like with the ability to cause tornadoes and earthquakes, he was powerful enough to do a mass extermination on the human race. With a few dragons at his side, they could make his conquest easier. But these dragons had to be the best and have special abilities to add to the group's arsenal. He was thinking about taking the night magi, Eitri, with him due to his being able to see in the dark and a wide range of magic that included the invisibility spell. Hewey the healer dragon should come too as his healing magic would be useful in mending wounds and injuries. A pygmy dragon who can go inside human territory for reconnaissance would be useful, too. A shadow dragon who can melt into the shadows and unleash surprise attacks is also welcome. A phoenix dragon to make everlasting fires and a storm dragon for creating storms to interfere with the enemy's prowess. This was how Aeolus was going to destroy all the humans in Solomos. Along the way in the whole continent, he may encounter other breeds of dragons with useful abilities and have a stronger horde. The disaster dragon left his cave and went to go talk to Doubloon for permission to take some of his villagers with him on his quest.

The disaster dragon entered the chieftain's cave and padded slowly so that he don't abruptly disturb the dragon's sleep. As Aeolus neared, Doubloon sensed his presence by smell and woke up from his rest. **"Oh Aeolus, what is it that I can help you with?"** he asked.

**"Well Chief Doubloon, I was thinking about how powerful my tornado was in demolishing the humans' nest and how I can easily wipe out the humans with just that and my earthquakes. But of course, there may be humans who would find ways to prevent my powers from doing any damage to them whether it be by the new tools they made or their magic,"** said Aeolus. **"I was thinking about bringing with me a few dragons with the best and useful powers to help me purge Solomos of those wretched creatures before they breed up back their numbers and wage another war against us."** He proposed the following dragons to bring with him, **"I would like to take Eitri, Hewey, Leafwing, Zylanon, Corona, and Lutarn as their abilities would be a valuable asset to my team."**

Doubloon said that he'll give Aeolus the dragons he needed, but first they need to give him their consent first. The chief telepathically asked the dragons if they want to go with Aeolus to destroy the humans around Solomos and they all said "yes". He looked back to the disaster dragon and told him that they'll go with him in the morning, but Eitri and Zylanon will have to meet up with the group at night as they are nocturnal dragons. Aeolus understood and the green dragon went back to his cave.

* * *

**Author's Note:** I was going to put a sword training scene in this chapter, but I would have ended up making it longer than it should have been. A new protagonist will be showing up in the next chapter and she'll be having a romantic story in this fanfic, stay tuned!

I've gotten the magic spells in this story from sites like spellsandmagic and magickspellcraft

Mrs. Merryweather, Leafwing, Corona, Zylanon, Lutarn, and Hewey (c) me

Jason (c) En'K'Haral ( or Enkaharal on DeviantArt)


End file.
